This work presents a numerical investigation on steady internal, external and surface flows of a liquid sphere immersed in a simple shear flow at low and intermediate Reynolds numbers. The control volume formulation is adopted to solve the governing equations of two-phase flow in a 3-D spherical coordinate system. Numerical results show that the streamlines for Re = 0 are closed Jeffery orbits on the surface of the liquid sphere, and also closed curves outside and inside the liquid sphere. However, the streamlines have intricate and non-closed structures for Re ≠ 0. The flow structure is dependent on the values of Reynolds number and interior-to-exterior viscosity ratio.
Particles(including solid particles,liquid drops and gas bubbles)are ubiquitous in a large number of natural processes as well as in industrial productions.Their behaviors are of fundamental importance in multiphase systems since the existence of such dispersed particles influences the momentum,mass and heat transport behaviors in these systems.Up to now,a vast body of literature has been published in dealing with the transport phenomena related to a particle surrounded by a fluid under various physical circumstances.In this paper,principal research results for the transport process of a single spherical particle in pure extensional and simple shear flows presented in the literature,including our recent work,are generally reviewed in order to give a comprehensive knowledge in this area.