Pressure drop due to the motion of neutrally buoyant particles in duct flows

Abstract

The additional pressure drop arising from the presence of a neutrally-buoyant, eccentrically positioned, spherical particle in a Poiseuille flow is calculated toO(a/R_o)⁵(a= sphere radius;R_o= tube radius). Similar calculations (of a lesser order of accuracy) are given for non-circular conduits and for ellipsoidal particles. Due to changes in particle orientation resulting from rotation, the instantaneous pressure drop for an ellipsoid of revolution varies periodically with time. This pressure diminution is averaged over one period to obtain the time-average pressure drop.