Inertial migration of oblate spheroids in a plane channel

Abstract

We discuss an inertial migration of oblate spheroids in a plane channel, where steady laminar flow is generated by a pressure gradient. Our lattice Boltzmann simulations show that spheroids orient in the flow, so that their minor axis coincides with the vorticity direction (a log-rolling motion). Interestingly, for spheroids of moderate aspect ratios, the equilibrium positions relative to the channel walls depend only on their equatorial radius $a$. By analysing the inertial lift force we argue that this force is proportional to $a^{3}b$, where $b$ is the polar radius, and conclude that the dimensionless lift coefficient of the oblate spheroid does not depend on $b$, and is equal to that of the sphere of radius $a$.

arXiv comment7 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Inertial migration of a rigid sphere in three-dimensional Poiseuille flow
• Inertial focusing of finite-size particles in microchannels
• Inertial migration of spherical and oblate particles in straight ducts
• Random-roughness hydrodynamic boundary conditions
• A simplified particulate model for coarse-grained hemodynamics simulations
• Inertial migration of neutrally-buoyant particles in superhydrophobic channels
• Lattice-Boltzmann simulations of the drag force on a sphere approaching a superhydrophobic striped plane
• Rotational behavior of red blood cells in suspension---a mesoscale simulation study