Spherical particle sedimenting in weakly viscoelastic shear flow

Abstract

We consider the dynamics of a small spherical particle driven through an unbounded viscoelastic shear flow by an external force. We give analytical solutions to both the mobility problem (velocity of forced particle) and the resistance problem (force on fixed particle), valid to second order in the dimensionless Deborah and Weissenberg numbers, which represent the elastic relaxation time of the fluid relative to the rate of translation and the imposed shear rate. We find a shear-induced lift at $O({\rm Wi})$, a modified drag at $O({\rm De}^2)$ and $O({\rm Wi}^2)$, and a second lift that is orthogonal to the first, at $O({\rm Wi}^2)$. The relative importance of these effects depends strongly on the orientation of the forcing relative to the shear. We discuss how these forces affect the terminal settling velocity in an inclined shear flow. We also describe a new basis set of symmetric Cartesian tensors, and demonstrate how they enable general tensorial perturbation calculations such as the present theory. In particular this scheme allows us to write down a solution to the inhomogenous Stokes equations, required by the perturbation expansion, by a sequence of algebraic manipulations well suited to computer implementation.