The pressure moments for two rigid spheres in low-Reynolds-number flow

Abstract

The pressure moment of a rigid particle is defined to be the trace of the first moment of the surface stress acting on the particle. A Faxén law for the pressure moment of one spherical particle in a general low-Reynolds-number flow is found in terms of the ambient pressure, and the pressure moments of two rigid spheres immersed in a linear ambient flow are calculated using multipole expansions and lubrication theory. The results are expressed in terms of resistance functions, following the practice established in other interaction studies. The osmotic pressure in a dilute colloidal suspension at small Péclet number is then calculated, to second order in particle volume fraction, using these resistance functions. In a second application of the pressure moment, the suspension or particle-phase pressure, used in two-phase flow modeling, is calculated using Stokesian dynamics and results for the suspension pressure for a sheared cubic lattice are reported.

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