Research Projects

Particles translating next to surfaces are common in many natural and technological settings. An understanding of the particle dynamics near interfaces is needed to design efficient drug delivery systems and microfluidic devices to separate cells. The particles and the surfaces can be elastic(flexible) in most applications. Earlier analytical works have focused on understanding the effect of weak elasticity on the hydrodynamic forces acting on the particles translating next to interfaces. However, the impact of weak fluid inertia (Reynolds number much less than 1) on the forces for elastic particles/deformable interfaces is not investigated yet. In the proposed project, we will quantify the effect of microscale fluid inertia on the hydrodynamic forces acting on particles translating near interfaces using analytical methods. We will use the generalized reciprocal theorem to express the forces acting on the particles as integrals for weak inertia and weak elasticity. We will evaluate the integrals analytically or numerically to obtain the forces. We will consider three kinds of particles (slender fibres, cylinders and spheres), and we will quantify the force for three cases: a) Elastic particles translating near a rigid boundary, b) Rigid particles translating near a deformable boundary and c) Elastic particles translating next to a deformable boundary. Our results can later be used as validation for simulations that do not have the restrictions of weak elasticity and weak fluid inertia.