Dynamical Simulations of Sedimenting Spheres

The sedimentation of monodisperse suspensions of rigid spheres has been studied by dynamical simulation; computational techniques are described and numerical results are reported. It has been found that there is a slow relaxation of the suspension microstructure during sedimentation, so that compared with the initial equilibrium distribution, there is an increased number of pairs of particles near contact; this leads to a 5%–10% increase in the average sedimentation velocity. Individual particle velocities fluctuate about the mean fall speed; these fluctuations are large and persist for long times. The resulting hydrodynamically induced dispersion of the particles can be characterized by strongly anisotropic diffusion coefficients; however, the dispersion process is non-Fickian at high solids concentrations.