Micro non-contact interaction between falling particles and plates in viscous fluids

Abstract

Frequent solid-solid interaction results in unpredicted hydrodynamic behaviors in solid-liquid two-phase flow, and the presence of liquid phases causes the interaction to be more complicated, giving rise to non-contact solid-solid interaction. In this work, we measured the micro non-contact interaction force between falling particles and plates in viscous fluids, the micro hydrodynamic behaviors of settling particles near plates were investigated, and interaction height, non-contact interaction force and collision force were quantitatively evaluated. When fluid moving front induced by settling particles contacts plates, non-contact interaction between them occurs, which is significantly strengthen by plate surface roughness, and “break effect” on interstitial fluid was observed, resulting in non-contact force peaks. Three correlations were established to quantitatively characterize the interaction height, non-contact interaction force and collision force, and good agreement is anticipated at the regimes of 9.93 < Re < 1248.35.