Forced convection and sedimentation past a flat plate

Abstract

The steady laminar flow of a well-mixed suspension of monodisperse solid spheres, convected steadily past a horizontal flat plate and sedimenting under the action of gravity, is examined. It is shown that, in the limit as Re → ∞ and ∈ → 0, where Re is the bulk Reynolds number and ∈ is the ratio of the particle radius a to the characteristic length scale L, the analysis for determining the particle concentration profile has several aspects in common with that of obtaining the temperature profile in forced-convection heat transfer from a wall to a fluid stream moving at high Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. Specifically, it is found that the particle concentration remains uniform throughout the O(Re_−1/2) thick Blasius boundary layer except for two O(∈^2/3) thin regions on either side of the plate, where the concentration profile becomes non-uniform owing to the presence of shear-induced particle diffusion which balances the particle flux due to convection and sedimentation. The system of equations within this concentration boundary layer admits a similarity solution near the leading edge of the plate, according to which the particle concentration along the top surface of the plate increases from its value in the free stream by an amount proportional to X^5/6, with X measuring the distance along the plate, and decreases in a similar fashion along the underside. But, unlike the case of gravity settling on an inclined plate in the absence of a bulk flow at infinity considered earlier (Nir & Acrivos 1990), here the concentration profile remains continuous everywhere. For values of X beyond the region near the leading edge, the particle concentration profile is obtained through the numerical solution of the relevant equations. It is found that, as predicted from the similarity solution, there exists a value of X at which the particle concentration along the top side of the plate attains its maximum value ϕ_m and that, beyond this point, a stagnant sediment layer will form that grows steadily in time. This critical value of X is computed as a function of ϕ_s, the particle volume fraction in the free stream. In contrast, but again in conformity with the similarity solution, for values of X sufficiently far removed from the leading edge along the underside of the plate, a particle-free region is predicted to form adjacent to the plate. This model, with minor modifications, can be used to describe particle migration in other shear flows, as, for example, in the case of crossflow microfiltration.