Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Numerical Study Of Particle Dynamics In A Falling-Ball Viscometer, Peiwen Hou

Dissertations

The falling-ball viscometer is a device where a spherical particle falls along the axis of a circular cylinder filled with viscous fluid. The various classical results for this device are developed under the assumption that the Reynolds number of the flow is zero, i.e., Stoke's flow. Inertial effects are not taken into account. To better understand the dynamics of the particle sedimentation process and the role of inertia in this process, we implemented a numerical simulation.

The ADI (Alternating Direction Implicit) scheme is widely used to solve the vorticity-stream function formulation of the Navier-Stokes equation in axisymmetric geometries. However, a …