Motion and wake structure of spherical particles.pdf

a r X i v : n l i n / 0 4 1 2 0 3 5 v 1 [ n l i n .C D ] 1 4 D e c 2 0 0 4 Motion and wake structure of spherical particles Christian Veldhuis?, Arie Biesheuvel?, Leen van Wijngaarden? and Detlef Lohse? § ? Department of Applied Physics, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands ? Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Abstract. This paper presents results from a flow visualization study of the wake structures behind solid spheres rising or falling freely in liquids under the action of gravity. These show remarkable differences to the wake structures observed behind spheres held fixed. The two parameters controlling the rise or fall velocity (i.e., the Reynolds number) are the density ratio between sphere and liquid and the Galileo number. 1. Introduction This year’s cover illustration shows the boundary layer separation from a light sphere rising in quiescent water at high Reynolds number. The wake structure behind the sphere is visualized with the Schlieren technique. The experiment is part of a project to study wake structures behind falling and rising spherical particles in a large range of Reynolds numbers. In the past years extensive numerical investigations [1–5] have established how the wake of a sphere held fixed in a uniform flow undergoes a series of transitions as the Reynolds number Re = Ud/ν is increased. Here U is the free stream velocity, d the di- ameter of the sphere, and ν the kinematic viscosity of the water. It was found that the wake is axially symmetric up to Re = 212. Above this value a planar-symmetric wake is found that consists of two steady counter-rotating threads. At Re ≈ 270 there is a further transition and the planar-symmetric flow becomes time-dependent: opposite- signed streamwise vortices then form a series of loops that resemble hairpin vortices. As the Reynolds number is further increased, the flow gradually becomes more irreg- ular and finally turbulent. The Digital P