Interaction and collisions between particles in a linearshear flow near a wall at low Reynolds number

The flow field around pairs of small particles moving and rotating in a shear flow close to a wall at low but finite Reynolds number (Re) is computed as a function of time by means of the lattice-Boltzmann technique. The total force and torque acting on each particle iscomputed at each time step and the position of the particles is updated. By considering the lift force and the disturbances induced by the particles, the trajectories of the pairof particles are explained as a function of the distances from the wall and the Reynolds number. It is shown that when particles are positioned in a particular form, they collide forming strings. In particular, we are interested in particle-bridge formation in shear flows, and two collided particles (a string) can be considered as a nucleus of a particle bridge.