The Effects of Vibrations on Particle Motion in a Viscous Fluid Cell

Abstract The effects of small vibrations on particle motion in a viscous fluid cell have been investigated experimentally and theoretically. A steel particle was suspended by a thin wire at the center of a fluid cell, and the cell was vibrated horizontally using an electromagnetic actuator and an air bearing stage. The vibration-induced particle amplitude measurements were performed for different fluid viscosities (58.0cP and 945cP), and cell vibration amplitudes and frequencies. A viscous fluid model was also developed to predict the vibration-induced particle motion. This model shows the effect of fluid viscosity compared to the inviscid model, which was presented earlier by Hassan et al. (2004, “The Effects of Vibrations on Particle Motion in an Infinite Fluid Cell,” ASME J. Appl. Mech., 73(1), pp. 72–78) and validated using data obtained for water. The viscous model with modified drag coefficients is shown to predict well the particle amplitude data for the fluid viscosities of 58.5cP and 945cP. While there is a resonance frequency corresponding to the particle peak amplitude for oil (58.0cP), this phenomenon disappeared for glycerol (945cP). This disappearance of resonance phenomenon is explained by referring to the theory of mechanical vibrations of a mass-spring-damper system. For the sinusoidal particle motion in a viscous fluid, the effective drag force has been obtained, which includes the virtual mass force, drag force proportional to the velocity, and the Basset or history force terms.