Waves, Algebraic Growth and Clumping in Sedimenting Disk Arrays

An array of spheres descending slowly through a viscous fluid always clumps [J.M. Crowley, J. Fluid Mech. {bf 45}, 151 (1971)]. We show that anisotropic particle shape qualitatively transforms this iconic instability of collective sedimentation. In experiment and theory on disks, aligned facing their neighbours in a horizontal one-dimensional lattice and settling at Reynolds number $sim 10^{-4}$ in a quasi-two-dimensional slab geometry, we find that for large enough lattice spacing the coupling of disk orientation and translation rescues the array from the clumping instability. Despite the absence of inertia the resulting dynamics displays the wavelike excitations of a mass-and-spring array, with a conserved momentum in the form of the collective tilt of the disks and an emergent spring stiffness from the viscous hydrodynamic interaction. However, the non-normal character of the dynamical matrix leads to algebraic growth of perturbations even in the linearly stable regime. Stability analysis demarcates a phase boundary in the plane of wavenumber and lattice spacing, separating the regimes of algebraically growing waves and clumping, in quantitative agreement with our experiments. Anisotropic shape thus suppresses the classic linear instability of sedimenting sphere arrays, introduces a new conserved variable, and opens a window to the physics of transient growth of linearly stable modes.