Substrate impact on flow induced particle motion in laminar shear flow

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Wierschem
• Subject Area: Fluid Mechanics ; Mechanical Process Engineering
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 269455552

Flow induced detachment and motion of solid particles on a fixed substrate or granular bed is of fundamental relevance in numerous natural and industrial systems. As examples sediment and granular transport in filtration, natural watercourses and piping systems, particle transport in the respiratory system, and the cleaning of surfaces may be mentioned. In microfluidics, spherical particles are progressively used as information carrier or for actuators like valves or pumps. Therefore, an important precondition is the controlled positioning of particles. While the motion of single particles on smooth walls is quite well understood, this does not hold for structured surfaces and granular beds. Despite numerous studies concerning the onset of particle motion, the motion itself or rather the material transport, these technologically important processes are still not well described. This is due to the fact that particle removal has been studied exclusively for disordered sediment layers and has been tried to describe using not well-defined parameters in the existing models. Since the precise particle arrangement is ignored, the effects of substrate geometry, exposure to the flow and shading by neighboring particles remains unclear. Hence, the impact of substrate geometry and of neighboring particles on the onset of particle motion and the motion along the substrate itself remains unclear.Granular beds hinder particle motion in two ways: On the one hand, the uneven substrate poses an obstacle, which downstream contact angle has to be overcome, on the other hand, its shades the particle against the flow. In an analogue manner, neighboring particles serve as an additional hindrance. Starting from this observation, we plan to vary the relevant parameters. The aim of the project is to describe the onset of particle motion and the motion along the substrate itself in laminar shear flows quantitatively in a model without recourse to not well-defined parameters.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants