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Updated: Feb 23, 2026

Visually Based Characterization of the Incipient Particle Motion in Regular Substrates: From Laminar to Turbulent Conditions
Published on: February 22, 2018
2D Stokesian Approach to Modeling Flow Induced Deformation of Particle Laden Interfaces
Nader Laal Dehghani1, Rajesh Khare2, Gordon F Christopher1
1Texas Tech University , Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, P.O. Box 41021, Lubbock, Texas 79409, United States.
Abstract:
A Stokesian dynamics simulation of the effect of surface Couette flow on the microstructure of particles irreversibly adsorbed to an interface is presented. Rather than modeling both bulk phases, the interface, and particles in a full 3D simulation, known interfacial interactions between adsorbed particles are used to create a 2D model from a top down perspective. This novel methodology is easy to implement and computationally inexpensive, which makes it favorable to simulate behavior of particles under applied flow at fluid-fluid interfaces. The methodology is used to examine microstructure deformation of monodisperse, rigid spherical colloids with repulsive interactions when a surface Couette flow is imposed. Simulation results compare favorably to experimental results taken from literature, showing that interparticle forces must be 1 order of magnitude greater than viscous drag for microstructure to transition from aligned particle strings to rotation of local hexagonal domains. Additionally, it is demonstrated that hydrodynamic interactions between particles play a significant role in the magnitude of these microstructure deformations.
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