Force on a Small Particle Attached to a Plane Wall in a Hiemenz Straining Flow

The force acting on a spherical particle fixed to a wall and immersed in an axisymmetric straining flow is examined for small Reynolds numbers. The steady, incompressible flow field is computed using an axisymmetric finite-volume method over conditions spanning five decades in the Reynolds number. The flow is characterized by the formation of a vortex ring structure in the wedge region formed between the particle lower surface and the plane wall. A power law expression for the dimensionless particle force is obtained as a function of the Reynolds number, which is found to hold with excellent accuracy for Reynolds numbers below about 0.1.