The orientation dynamics of a massive ellipsoid in simple shear flow

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Main Authors: Vishwanathan, Giridar, Gudda, Sangamesh, Subramanian, Ganesh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Vishwanathan, Giridar
Gudda, Sangamesh
Subramanian, Ganesh
author_facet Vishwanathan, Giridar
Gudda, Sangamesh
Subramanian, Ganesh
contents The orientation dynamics of a massive rigid ellipsoid in simple shear flow of a Newtonian fluid is investigated in detail. The term `massive' refers to dominant particle inertia, as characterized by $St \gg 1$, $St = \dotγl^2ρ_p/νρ_f$ being the Stokes number; here, $\dotγ$ is the shear rate, $ν$ is the kinematic viscosity, $l$ is a characteristic ellipsoidal dimension (taken to be the longest semi axis), and $ρ_p$ and $ρ_f$ are the particle and fluid densities, respectively. Fluid inertial effects are neglected, so the particle Reynolds number ($Re$) is zero. The equations of motion of the ellipsoid in this limit reduce to those governing an Euler top, supplemented by a weak viscous torque. The dynamics consists of a fast conservative motion on time scales of $O(\dotγ^{-1})$ that, for an ellipsoid, involves a combination of spin, precession and nutation, and a slower component driven by the viscous torque; the latter modulates the angular momentum and rotational kinetic energy on asymptotically longer time scales of $O(St{\dotγ}^{-1})$. The separation of time scales for large $St$ allows for use of the method of averaging for a triaxial ellipsoid, to derive an autonomous system of ODE's that govern motion on a four-dimensional slow manifold consisting of the three angular momenta and the rotational kinetic energy. There are three fixed points on the slow manifold, with rotation about the shortest axis being stable. The fixed point corresponding to rotation about the longest axis is a saddle point, while intermediate-axis-aligned rotation corresponds to a singular fixed point. For spheroids, the singular fixed point merges with one of the other two, leading to only two fixed points, one a stable node and the other a saddle; the former corresponds to rotation about the shorter axis.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_15074
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The orientation dynamics of a massive ellipsoid in simple shear flow
Vishwanathan, Giridar
Gudda, Sangamesh
Subramanian, Ganesh
Fluid Dynamics
The orientation dynamics of a massive rigid ellipsoid in simple shear flow of a Newtonian fluid is investigated in detail. The term `massive' refers to dominant particle inertia, as characterized by $St \gg 1$, $St = \dotγl^2ρ_p/νρ_f$ being the Stokes number; here, $\dotγ$ is the shear rate, $ν$ is the kinematic viscosity, $l$ is a characteristic ellipsoidal dimension (taken to be the longest semi axis), and $ρ_p$ and $ρ_f$ are the particle and fluid densities, respectively. Fluid inertial effects are neglected, so the particle Reynolds number ($Re$) is zero. The equations of motion of the ellipsoid in this limit reduce to those governing an Euler top, supplemented by a weak viscous torque. The dynamics consists of a fast conservative motion on time scales of $O(\dotγ^{-1})$ that, for an ellipsoid, involves a combination of spin, precession and nutation, and a slower component driven by the viscous torque; the latter modulates the angular momentum and rotational kinetic energy on asymptotically longer time scales of $O(St{\dotγ}^{-1})$. The separation of time scales for large $St$ allows for use of the method of averaging for a triaxial ellipsoid, to derive an autonomous system of ODE's that govern motion on a four-dimensional slow manifold consisting of the three angular momenta and the rotational kinetic energy. There are three fixed points on the slow manifold, with rotation about the shortest axis being stable. The fixed point corresponding to rotation about the longest axis is a saddle point, while intermediate-axis-aligned rotation corresponds to a singular fixed point. For spheroids, the singular fixed point merges with one of the other two, leading to only two fixed points, one a stable node and the other a saddle; the former corresponds to rotation about the shorter axis.
title The orientation dynamics of a massive ellipsoid in simple shear flow
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15074