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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow
Published on: May 1, 2018
Shearing behavior of polydisperse media
M Wackenhut1, S McNamara, H Herrmann
1Institute for Computational Physics, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 27, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany. M.Wackenhut@ica1.uni-stuttgart.de
Abstract:
We study the shearing of polydisperse and bidisperse media with a size ratio of 10. Simulations are performed with a two-dimensional shear cell using contact dynamics. With a truncated power law for the polydisperse media we find that they show a stronger dilatancy and greater resistance to shearing than bidisperse mixtures. To model additives used to control viscosity we introduce so-called "point-like particles". Even changing the kinematic behavior very little, the point-like particles reduce the force necessary to maintain a fixed shearing velocity.
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