Friction of rodlike particles adsorbed to a planar surface in shear flow

A planar hard surface covered with elongated stiff rodlike particles in shear flow is considered in the low-Reynolds-number regime assuming low particle surface coverage. The particles are modeled as straight chains of spherical beads. Multipole expansion of the Stokes equations (the accurate HYDROMULTIPOLE algorithm) is applied to evaluate the hydrodynamic force exerted by the fluid on the rodlike particles, depending on their shape, i.e., on the number of beads and their orientation with respect to the wall and to the ambient shear flow.