Gravitational Fall Velocity of Sphere in Viscous Fluid
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 124, Issue 11
Abstract
The gravitational transient fall velocity of a rigid sphere in an otherwise quiescent viscous fluid is studied through examining the physical reasonableness of simulated results and comparing the results to Moorman's 1955 free-fall experiments. The published sphere dynamic equations from low-to-moderate sphere Reynolds number are solved numerically by a fourth order predictor-corrector method and iterations on sphere velocity and acceleration. Among the published sphere dynamic expressions, Mei and Adrian's 1992 expression has the best agreement with Moorman's data. The relative importance of the steady and unsteady drags along the gravitational transient process is also discussed. It is found that neglecting the unsteady drag indeed simplifies the computational procedure, but the accuracy on the time-varying fall velocity is significantly compromised. The added mass and history terms are of great importance at early stages of gravitational transient falling for low sphere-to-fluid density ratio and low sphere Reynolds number.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 124 • Issue 11 • November 1998
Pages: 1193 - 1199
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Nov 1, 1998
Published in print: Nov 1998
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