Determination of Critical Point of Particle Migration Direction in a Confined Shear Flow of Giesekus Fluids

Abstract

Migration of a particle in a confined shear flow of Giesekus fluids is investigated numerically with the method of direct forcing/fictitious domain. We focus on the migration direction for the particle with initial lateral position y0 and determination of critical point yc of a particle moving towards the center line or wall. The effect of viscosity ratio μr, shear-thinning parameter α, Weissenberg number Wi, and blocking rate β on the value yc is analyzed. The results showed that when μr ≤ 0.5, the particle will migrate towards the wall regardless of the value of y0. When μr > 0.5, yc increases with increasing μr, and some particles will migrate towards the center line with the increase in μr. The particle is more likely to migrate towards the center line at small values of Wi and α but at large values of μr. The impact of Wi and β on the particle migration direction is more obvious. The particle will migrate towards the wall for β = 0.3 and is more likely to migrate towards the wall with increasing β. α and Wi have little influence on the pressure distribution in the case of the same β and μr. The particle near the wall will migrate faster because large positive pressure and negative pressure appear around the particle.

Keywords

• spherical particle
• Giesekus fluid
• shear flow
• migration direction
• critical point
• numerical simulation