The lift on a small sphere in wall-bounded linear shear flows

Abstract

This paper presents a closed-form solution for the inertial lift force acting on a small rigid sphere that translates parallel to a flat wall in a linear shear flow. The results provide connections between results derived by other workers for various limiting cases. An analytical form for the lift force is derived in the limit of large separations. Some new results are presented for the disturbance flow created by a small rigid sphere translating through an unbounded linear shear flow.