Segregation and aggregation of a suspension of finite-sized particles in the presence of a thermal gradient

Abstract

We examined the segregation and aggregation of a bidisperse suspension of finite - sized particles under different strengths of the thermal forcing and different disparities in particle masses. We find that the strength of the thermal gradient is a major contributor to the suspension’s segregation and aggregation by increasing the long - term degree of segregation, as well as slowing down their aggregation. In addition, at low particle masses (below relative mass difference μ = 20), the deviations in the fluid’s flow fields induced by their presence in suspension do not have significant effects on the resulting dynamics of the particles, thus one-way coupling from the fluid to the particles is sufficient for such scenarios. We find that two - way coupling effects become important only at μ ≥ 20. The results may have significance in particle - laden flows, as well as simplifications in the associated models.