Removal of Particle Pairs from a Plane Surface

ABSTRACT

The removal of two attached particle pairs from a plane surface was studied. The computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT^TM was used to evaluate the drag force and to simulate the flow field around the two attached spherical particles that are in contact with a plane subject to a shear flow. Critical shear rates for various vertically aligned particle-pair removal mechanisms from a plane surface are evaluated. The results show that rolling detachment is the dominant mechanism for removal of particle pairs from a plane surface, and the presence of fine surface roughness reduces the critical shear rate. It is also found that it is easier for a vertically aligned particle pair with the large particle on the top to be removed from the wall when compared with a pair with the large particle in contact with wall.

Keywords:

• Breaup
• Detachment
• Particle-pair adhesion
• Particle-pair drag
• pair removal

Notes

Various stages of this work were supported by Elan (Dura) Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) [through the Center for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP) of Clarkson University]. The support of IBM through the donation of pSeries computational facilities to Clarkson University is also gratefully acknowledged.