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Particle rotation speeds up capillary interactions

  • Regular Article - Soft Matter
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The European Physical Journal E Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We use dynamic numerical simulations to investigate the role of particle rotation in pairwise capillary interactions of particles trapped at a fluid interface. The fluid interface is modeled with a phase-field method which is coupled to the Navier–Stokes equations to solve for the flow dynamics. Numerical solutions are found using a finite element scheme in a bounded two-dimensional geometry. The interfacial deformations are caused by the buoyant weight of the particles, which are allowed to both translate and rotate due to the capillary and viscous forces and torques at play. The results show that the capillary attraction is faster between freely rotating particles than if particle rotation is inhibited, and the higher the viscosity mismatch, the greater the effect. To explain this result, we analyze the drag force exerted on the particles and find that the translational drag force on a rotating particle is always less than its non-rotating counterpart due to attenuated velocity gradients in the vicinity of the particle. We also find that the influence of interfacial deformations on particle rotation is minute.

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Data Availability Statement

This manuscript has associated data in a data repository. [Authors’ comment: The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.]

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the EU Marie-Curie fellowship “CoPEC” under Grant No. 794837–H2020-MSCA-IF-2017 and by the NSERC Discovery Grant No. 2019-04162. One of us (J.-C.L.) is also indebted to the University of Bordeaux for further financial support thanks to the IdEx program entitled “Développement des carrières - Volet personnel de recherche.” We acknowledge CMC Microsystems for software licensing. The IT staff of the Mathematics department of the University of British Columbia is also gratefully acknowledged for their valuable help and support.

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Author notes

  1. M. Qiu

    Present address: Laboratoire de Physique, École Normale Supérieure, 75005, Paris, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Munich, 85748, Garching, Germany

    J. Hemauer

  2. Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada

    J. Hemauer, M. Qiu, J. J. Feng & J.-C. Loudet

  3. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada

    J. J. Feng

  4. CNRS, Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal (UMR 5031), University of Bordeaux, 33600, Pessac, France

    J.-C. Loudet

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  1. J. Hemauer
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Contributions

J-CL and JJF designed the research. J-CL and JH performed the work; all authors analyzed the data, interpreted the results and collaborated to the manuscript written by J-CL.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J.-C. Loudet.

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Hemauer, J., Qiu, M., Feng, J.J. et al. Particle rotation speeds up capillary interactions. Eur. Phys. J. E 44, 30 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-021-00025-w

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