Bidensity Particle-Laden Flows on an Incline

Abstract

Particle-laden slurries are ubiquitous in nature and in industrial settings, whenever particles are suspended or transported in a solvent. However, polydisperse thin film particle-laden flow is poorly understood, necessitating the development of a comprehensive quantitative model. Previous research on gravity driven bidensity viscous thin film flows exclusively studied a constant volume. We present an analysis on the behavior of these flows due to two conditions: constant volume and continuous pouring of slurry, i.e. constant flux. We classified flows along a straight track as ‘settled’ or ‘ridged’ for different inclination angle $\alpha$ and particle concentration $\phi$. Low values of $\alpha$ and $\phi$ are correlated with the settled regime, and high values with the ridged regime. We observed interesting fingering phenomena in the constant flux case, which requires further investigation. Additionally, studying different particle sizes will give us a more complete understanding of the dynamics.

Report available on request.