Inertial focusing and rotating characteristics of elliptical and rectangular particle pairs in channel flow

Abstract

The lattice Boltzmann method is used to study the inertial focusing and rotating characteristics of two-dimensional elliptical particles and rectangular particles in channel flow. The results show that both elliptical particles and rectangular particles initially located on one side and two sides of channel centerline migrate first towards the equilibrium position. Then, the single-line particle train with an increasing spacing and the staggered particle train with stable spacing are formed. The axial spacing of the staggered particle pair increases with aspect ratio and Reynolds number increasing. The staggered elliptical or rectangular particle pairs form perpendicular orientation angles, which will be more obvious at larger aspect ratio and lower Reynolds number. The single-line particle trains with different shapes seldom form the perpendicular orientation angle.