Lateral motion of a spherical particle suspended in Couette flow

Abstract

This study aims to simulate the lateral motion of a neutrally buoyant spherical particle suspended in Couette flow using a lattice-Boltzmann algorithm. It was found that the particle migrates to an equilibrium position at the center of the channel regardless of its initial position. A force coupling constant controls the strength of particle and fluid interactions. Requiring this constant to enforce Stokes' drag on the particle resulted in a slightly faster migration than when using a constant that conserves the net kinetic energy.