The rotation of a sedimenting anisotropic particle in a linearly stratified ambient

Abstract

We derive the torque on a spheroid of an arbitrary aspect ratio $\kappa$ sedimenting in a linearly stratified ambient. The analysis demarcates regions in parameter space corresponding to broadside-on and edgewise (longside-on) settling in the limit $Re,R{i}_v\ll 1$, where $Re={\rho }_{0}UL/\mu$ and $R{i}_v=\gamma L^{3}g/\mu U$, the Reynolds and viscous Richardson numbers, respectively, are dimensionless measures of the importance of inertial and buoyancy forces relative to viscous ones. Here, $L$ is the spheroid semi-major axis, $U$ an appropriate settling velocity scale, $\mu$ the fluid viscosity, and $\gamma (>0)$ the (constant)\,density gradient characterizing the stably stratified ambient, with ${\rho }_0$ being the fluid density taken to be a constant within the Boussinesq framework. A reciprocal theorem formulation identifies three contributions to the torque: (1) an $O(Re)$ inertial contribution that already exists in a homogeneous ambient, and orients the spheroid broadside-on; (2) an $O(R{i}_v)$ hydrostatic contribution due to the ambient linear stratification that also orients the spheroid broadside-on; and (3) a hydrodynamic contribution arising from the perturbation of the ambient stratification by the spheroid whose nature depends on $Pe$; $Pe=UL/D$ being the Peclet number with $D$ the diffusivity of the stratifying agent. For $Pe\gg 1$, the hydrodynamic contribution is $O(R{i}_v^{\frac{2}{3}}$) in the Stokes stratification regime characterized by $Re\ll R{i}_v^{\frac{1}{3}}$, and orients the spheroid edgewise regardless of $\kappa$. The differing orientation dependencies of the inertial and large-$Pe$ hydrodynamic stratification torques imply that the broadside-on and edgewise settling regimes are separated by two distinct $\kappa$-dependent critical curves in the $R{i}_v/R{e}^{\frac{3}{2}}-\kappa$ plane. The predictions are consistent with recent experimental observations.

34 pages, 15 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Motion of a sphere in a viscous density stratified fluid

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Orientation instability of settling spheroids in a linearly density stratified fluid
• Motion of a sphere in a viscous density stratified fluid
• Mixing by squirmers in stratified fluids