Author:
SRDIĆ-MITROVIĆ A. N.,MOHAMED N. A.,FERNANDO H. J. S.
Abstract
Gravitational settling of dense particles through density interfaces
is common in
many environmental and engineering flow situations, yet very little research
has been
done to understand the mechanics of particle–stratification interactions.
To this end,
a detailed experimental study was carried out to investigate the settling
of solid
spherical particles through density interfaces. In these experiments, the
solid particles
first descended through a deep homogeneous layer, entered a thick pycnocline
and then
descended to another denser homogeneous layer. It was found that the stratification
has a significant impact on the settling of particles in the approximate
parameter
range 1.5<Re1<15, where
Re1=U1dp/v
is the Reynolds number based on the
particle entry velocity U1 to the stratified layer,
dp is the particle diameter and v
is
the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. In the above parameter range, the
particles tend
to drag lighter fluid from the upper layer into the stratified region,
thus increasing the drag
on them substantially and decelerating them within the stratified layer.
In the Froude number
Fr1=U1/Ndp
range
investigated, 3<Fr1<10, where N is the
buoyancy frequency of the stratified layer, the drag coefficient was found
to be an
order of magnitude larger than its homogeneous-fluid counterpart. The internal-wave
contribution to the drag was small compared to that of fluid dragged into
the stratified
layer, but substantial internal-wave activity could be detected after the
fluid dragged
from the lighter layer (the caudal fluid) detached from the particle.The minimum velocity of the solid particle within the stratified layer
was found to be given
by Umin/U1=
5.5×10−2Fr9/101,
occurring on a
time scale tmin/
(d2p/v)=
1.4×102Re−1.71, where
tmin was measured relative to the time of
the particle's
entry into the stratified region. Outside the parameter range
1.5<Re1<15, the drag on the
sphere in the density-stratified layer could be approximated to that in
a homogeneous
fluid, whence the bringing of lighter fluid into the stratified layer as
a tail behind the
descending particle was found to be negligible.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Mechanical Engineering,Mechanics of Materials,Condensed Matter Physics
Cited by
77 articles.
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