4.

Single particles in a fluid

Various engineering unit operations involve particulate solids and fluids. Often the solids are an integral
part of the material being processed, e.g. spray drying or feeding pulverized coal into a burner.
Sometimes the fluid motion is used to separate solids from the fluid as in sedimentation and filtration.
In other cases, the fluid motion is used to separate particles from each other as in the classification of
particles of various sizes or densities in an elutriator.
This chapter will discuss the terminal settling velocity for single particles. This knowledge will be used
in subsequent chapters to describe the behaviour of particle assemblies in settling, fluidization, filtration,
gas cyclones, and pneumatic transport.

4.1 Force balance on a particle

Consider an arbitrary particle suspended in a fluid, as shown in Figure 1.
The resulting force, FR, is the sum of all the forces and is expressed as:

𝑚 = 𝐹 −𝐹 −𝐹 …1

Drag
Buoyancy Force
Force

Resulting
Force

External
force

Figure 1 Forces on a particle in a fluid

4.1.1 External force

The external force may be expressed using Newton’s second law
FE = maE …2
where aE is the acceleration of the particle resulting from the external force.
If the external force is only due to gravity, then aE = g.
If the external force is centrifugal, then aE = 2r,
where  = the rotational speed
r = is the radius of the circular path.
4.1.2 Buoyancy force
A completely submerged body displaces a volume of liquid equal to its volume. The buoyant force
equals the weight of the fluid displaced. The mass of the fluid displaced by the solid is equal to (m/s)
where s and  are the solid and fluid density, respectively. Therefore

m
FB     a E …3
 s 
4.1.3 Drag force
Whenever relative motion exists between a particle and a surrounding fluid, the fluid will exert a drag
upon the particle. This drag force will oppose the free flow of the particle, i.e. reduce the velocity of
the particle.
Except in extraneous cases, such as turbulence, there is no difference in whether the fluid moves past
the particle or the particle moves through the fluid. It should be noted that the velocity of the particle
is measured relative to the velocity of the fluid.
In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify
the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment, such as air or water. It is defined as:
CD = Total momentum transfer/ Momentum transfer by turbulence
= FD/(AE) …4
where FD = drag force
A = Characteristic surface area of particle
E = Characteristic energy of a particle
If a finite-size particle flows in a medium, the characteristic surface area A is taken as the projected
surface area at a plane perpendicular to the relative movement. From a dimensional analysis, it can be
stated that the characteristic energy E = ½u2.
The drag force on a particle is then expressed as:
FD = CDAu2/2 …5

where CD = drag coefficient

 = density of the fluid
u = relative velocity of the particle

4.1.4 Total force balance on a particle

Combining equations 1, 2, 3 and 5 yields the total force balance on the particle

𝑚 = 𝑚𝑎 − 𝑚 𝑎 − …6

To determine the terminal settling velocity, the change in the velocity of the particle should be
negligible, i.e. du/dt = 0. If only gravitational force is considered as the external force, equation 6
becomes

0 = 𝑚𝑔 − 𝑚 𝑔−

or 𝑔 1− = …7

If spherical particles with diameter d and density s are considered, then

 𝑚=𝜌 𝑑 …8

and 𝐴= 𝑑 (The projected area of a sphere is a circle) …9

Substituting equations 8 and 9 in equation 7 gives

( )
𝑢 = ...10

4.1.5 Relationship between Rep vs CD.

The particle Reynolds number is defined as:
du
Re P 
 …11
with d = particle diameter
u = velocity of the particle
 = density of the fluid
 = viscosity of the fluid
Experimental work where the Reynolds number is varied and the drag coefficient determined shows
the typical relationship in Figure 1. Knowing the Reynolds number, the drag coefficient can be obtained
from Figure 1 and then substituted into Equation 10 to obtain the terminal settling velocity.

10000

Laminar region Transitional region Newtonian region

1000

100
CD

10

0.2 2000
0.1
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000

Rep

Figure 1 Standard drag plot for the motion of a sphere in a fluid.

4.2 Flow regions

From Figure 1, it can be observed that there are three distinct regions for the drag coefficient against
the particle Reynolds number.

4.2.1 Laminar flow (ReP < 0.2)

Stokes (1851) solved the Navier-Stokes equation for momentum transfer for spherical particles,
assuming laminar flow conditions, giving
FD = 3du …12
Combining equations 5 and 12 gives

𝐹 = 3𝜋𝑑𝜇𝑢 = 𝐶 𝑑

𝐶 = 24 =
…13

If equation 13 is substituted into equation 10, the terminal settling velocity for spherical particles in the
laminar flow regime is

g (  s   )d 2
u
18 …14
The Archimedes number (Ar) is defined as
( )
𝐴𝑟 =
…15
Equation 14 can then be written as
Ar = 18 ReP for (ReP < 2) …16

4.2.2 Transitional flow (0.2 < ReP < 20 000)

Various correlations between drag coefficient and Reynolds number have been proposed, with some of
them shown in Table 1.
Using the definitions of Ar and ReP, equation 10 can be written as:
𝐶 𝑅𝑒 = 𝐴𝑟
…17

Linearizing equation 17 by taking the log of both sides gives:

𝑙𝑜𝑔( 𝐶 ) = −2 𝑙𝑜𝑔( 𝑅𝑒 ) + 𝑙𝑜𝑔 𝐴𝑟

…18

Table 1 Equations for drag coefficients for transitional flow

Author Equation Applicable at Re
numbers
Kurten, Raasch & Rumpf (1966) 24 2 .8 15 – 100
CD  
Re 4 Re
Brauer (1971) 24 4 0.2 – 300
CD    0 .4
Re Re
Olson (1961) 8 – 200
24  3 
CD  1  Re 
Re  16 
 Abraham (1970) 2 0.2 – 1000
 9.06 
C D  0.291  
 Re 
< 3105
Khan & Richardson (1987)

C D  2.25 Re 0.31  0.36 Re 0.06 
3.45

Schiller & Neuman (1933) 24 0.2 – 2000

CD  (1  0.15 Re 0P.68 )
Re P

The log scale graph of CD vs ReP (figure 1), equation 18 is a straight line with a slope of -2 and intercept
log(4/3Ar). Knowing the particle diameter, viscosity and density of the fluid, as well as the density of
the particle, the terminal settling velocity can be calculated. The intersection of the line from equation18
with the drag curve gives the value of ReP, and hence the terminal settling velocity (u)
Example 4.1
A glass sphere (SG = 1.8)i with a diameter of 200m settles freely in water (SG=1,  = 1 cP). Determine
the terminal settling velocity of the particle

Solution

Ar = 62.78 (thus not laminar flow – need to use

the chart)

Re Cd
0.1 8371.2 Plot these points on
1 83.712 the chart, and where it
10 0.83712 intersects the CD vs
Re CD graph read the Re number as 2.7

Thus u = 0.0135 m/s

To determine the diameter of a particle falling with a specific velocity, equation 10 is written as

( )
𝐶 / 𝑅𝑒 =

The log of both sides gives

( )
𝑙𝑜𝑔( 𝐶 ) = 𝑙𝑜𝑔( 𝑅𝑒 ) + 𝑙𝑜𝑔
…19

On the log-log graph of CD vs Rep (figure 1), equation 19 will give a straight line with a slope of +1.
The intersection of this line with the drag curve gives the value of ReP, and hence the particle diameter
(d) which will fall with the specified terminal settling velocity.
4.2.3 Newtonian flow (ReP > 2000)
For Newtonian flow conditions, the drag coefficient is independent of the Reynolds number, at
approximately 0,40.

4.3 Non-Spherical Particles

For non-spherical particles, figure 1 has been expanded to include correlations for drag coefficient
against particle Reynolds number for different particle sphericities, see Figure 2. Note that both the
drag coefficient and the Reynolds number are based on the equivalent volume diameter.

100000

10000

1000

100
CD

Y = 0 . 12 5
10 Y = 0.28
Y = 0.60
1 Y = 0.806
Y = 1. 0
0.1
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
Re P

Figure 2 Drag coefficient vs Reynolds number for different sphericities

4.4 Influence of boundaries on terminal settling velocity

As the particle settles in the fluid, there is an upward motion of the fluid on the particle. This effect has
been considered when calculating the total force balance. If the wall of the vessel in which the particle
is settling is close to the particle, there will be frictional losses exerted by the wall on the fluid. This is
normally described using a wall factor fW,

.
𝑓 = = 1+
∞
..21

where ud = velocity in the pipe

u = velocity in an infinite fluid

 d = particle diameter

D = vessel diameter

4.5 A combined approach

The correlation by Schiller and Neuman (1933) (see table 1) can be written as

Ar = 18 ReP + 2.7 ReP1.68 …20

This equation proves to be very useful because it is a combination of laminar flow, equation 16 and
turbulent flow (using the chart).

For spherical particles, the Ar number is calculated. If the Ar/18 <0,2, it implies laminar flow and the
second part of equation 20 can be ignored, else both portions should be considered.

Equation 20 can be solved iteratively by writing it as

Ar  2.7 Re 1P.68
Re P 
18 which will converge provided Ar <  220
Example 4.2

A glass sphere (SG = 1.8) with a diameter of 200m settles freely in water (SG=1,  = 1 cP). Determine
the terminal settling velocity of the particle

Solution

Ar = 62.78 (thus not laminar flow- Need to use equation 20)

Solve to get Re = 2.69, thus u = 0.01345 m/s