Centrifugal Forces Alter Streamline Topology and Greatly Enhance the Rate of Heat and Mass Transfer from Neutrally Buoyant Particles to a Shear Flow

G. Subramanian and D. L. Koch
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 134503 – Published 4 April 2006

Abstract

Centrifugal forces break the degenerate closed-streamline configuration that occurs in simple shear flow past a neutrally buoyant torque-free particle in the inertialess limit. The broken symmetry allows heat or mass to be convected away in an efficient manner in sharp contrast to the inertialess diffusion-limited scenario. The dimensionless transfer rate, characterized by the Nusselt number, is found to be Nu=0.33(RePe)1/3+O(1) for small but finite Re when RePe1. Here, the particle Reynolds number (Re) is a dimensionless measure of the inertial forces, while the Peclet number (Pe) measures the relative importance of the convective and the diffusive transfer mechanisms. The symmetry-breaking bifurcation is expected to occur in generic shearing flows, and represents a possible means for heat or mass transfer enhancement from the dispersed phase in multiphase systems.

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  • Received 1 July 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.134503

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

G. Subramanian and D. L. Koch

  • School of Chemical and Bio-Molecular Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 13 — 7 April 2006

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