Surface Forces on a Deforming Ellipsoid in Shear Flow

TL;DR

This paper introduces a model to compute surface force density on a deforming fluid ellipsoid in shear flow, enabling simulation of its motion, shape, and breakage behavior.

Contribution

It develops a novel coupling method to calculate the fragmentation force on a fluid ellipsoid, advancing the understanding of droplet and colloidal aggregate dynamics in shear flow.

Findings

The model accurately predicts surface force distributions.

It enables simulation of droplet deformation and breakage.

The approach can be applied to colloidal systems.

Abstract

We present a model for computing the surface force density on a fluid ellipsoid in simple shear flow, which we derive by coupling existing models for the shape of a fluid droplet and the surface force density on a solid ellipsoid. The primary contribution of this coupling is to develop a method to compute the force acting against a plane intersecting the ellipsoid, which we call the fragmentation force. The model can be used to simulate the motion, shape, surface force density, and breakage of fluid droplets and colloidal aggregates in shear flow.