Collective Dynamics of Interacting Particles in Unsteady Flows

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the collective behavior of interacting particles in unsteady flows using the Fokker-Planck equation, revealing stable traveling solutions, their stability conditions, and the nature of particle streaming in dynamic fluid environments.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical framework combining the Fokker-Planck equation and linear perturbation analysis to study particle dynamics in unsteady flows, including stability and mode characterization.

Findings

Stable single-peaked traveling solutions exist in unsteady flows.

Particle streaming can be asynchronous with the carrier fluid in unsteady conditions.

The stability analysis reveals over-damped, critically damped, or oscillatory modes depending on drag.

Abstract

We use the Fokker-Planck equation and its moment equations to study the collective behavior of interacting particles in unsteady one-dimensional flows. Particles interact according to a long-range attractive and a short-range repulsive potential field known as Morse potential. We assume Stokesian drag force between particles and their carrier fluid, and find analytic single-peaked traveling solutions for the spatial density of particles in the catastrophic phase. In steady flow conditions the streaming velocity of particles is identical to their carrier fluid, but we show that particle streaming is asynchronous with an unsteady carrier fluid. Using linear perturbation analysis, the stability of traveling solutions is investigated in unsteady conditions. It is shown that the resulting dispersion relation is an integral equation of the Fredholm type, and yields two general families of stable modes: singular modes whose eigenvalues form a continuous spectrum, and a finite number of discrete global modes. Depending on the value of drag coefficient, stable modes can be over-damped, critically damped, or decaying oscillatory waves. The results of linear perturbation analysis are confirmed through the numerical solution of the fully nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation.