THE MOTION OF A SPHERICAL PARTICLE IN THE STOKES FLOW OUTSIDE A CIRCULAR ORIFICE

For any study ofa suspension entering a pore, the knowledge of the force and moment exerted on a solute particle in an arbitrary position outside the pore is essential, 'This paper for the first lime presents approximate analytical expressions (in closed form) of all the twelve force and moment coefficienis for a sphere outsied a circular orifice, on the basis of a number of discrete data computed by Yan et al(1987).These coefficients are then applied to calculate the trajectory and angular velocity of a spherical particle approaching the pore at zero Reynolds number. The trajectory is in excellent agreement with the available experimental results. An analysis of the relative importance of the coefficients shows that the rotation effect cannot be neglected near the pore opening or near the wall, and that the lateral force effect must be taken into account in the neighborhood of the edge of the pore opening. It is due to neglecting these factors that previous theoretical results deviate from the experimental ones near the pore opening. The effects of the ratio of the particle to pore radii as well as the influences of the graritytbuoyance on the particle trajectory, velocity distribution and rotation are discnssed in detail. It is pointed out that in the experiments of neutrally-buoyant suspensions, the restriction on the density of the particle is most demanding for a large particle size.The expressions of forces and moments presenled herein are complete, relatively accurate and convenient, thus providing a good prerequisite for further studies of any problems involving the entrance of particles to a pare.