arXiv subjects

Richard M. Höfer

Publications and source records attributed to Richard M. Höfer.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Hindered Settling of Well-Separated Particle Suspensions

We consider $N$ identical inertialess rigid spherical particles in a Stokes flow in a domain $Ω\subset \mathbb R^3$. We study the average sedimentation velocity of the particles when an identical force acts on each particle. If the particles are homogeneously distributed in directions orthogonal to this force, then they hinder each other leading to a mean sedimentation velocity which is smaller than the sedimentation velocity of a single particle in an infinite fluid. Under suitable convergence assumptions of the particle density and a strong separation assumption, we identify the order of this hindering as well as effects of small scale inhomogeneities and boundary effects. For certain configurations we explicitly compute the leading order corrections.

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arXiv2022

Non-existence of mean-field models for particle orientations in suspensions

We consider a suspension of spherical inertialess particles in a Stokes flow on the torus $\mathbb T^3$. The particles perturb a linear extensional flow due to their rigidity constraint. Due to the singular nature of this perturbation, no mean-field limit for the behavior of the particle orientation can be valid. This contrasts with widely used models in the literature such as the FENE and Doi models and similar models for active suspensions. The proof of this result is based on the study of the mobility problem of a single particle in a non-cubic torus, which we prove to exhibit a nontrivial coupling between the angular velocity and a prescribed strain.

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arXiv2021

Motion of several slender rigid filaments in a Stokes flow

We investigate the dynamics of several slender rigid bodies moving in a flow driven by the three-dimensional steady Stokes system in presence of a smooth background flow. More precisely we consider the limit where the thickness of these slender rigid bodies tends to zero with a common rate $\varepsilon$, while their volumetric mass density is held fixed, so that the bodies shrink into separated massless curves. While for each positive $\varepsilon$, the bodies' dynamics are given by the Newton equations and correspond to some coupled second-order ODEs for the positions of the bodies, we prove that the limit equations are decoupled first-order ODEs whose coefficients only depend on the limit curves and on the background flow. These coefficients appear through appropriate renormalized Stokes resistance tensors associated with each limit curve, and through renormalized Faxén-type force and torque associated with the limit curves and the background flow. We establish a rate of convergence of the curves of order $O( \vert \log \varepsilon \vert^{-1/2})$. We also determine the limit effect due to the limit curves on the fluid, in the spirit of the immersed boundary method. Both for the convergence of the filament velocities and the fluid velocities we identify an initial exponential relaxation within a $O(\varepsilon^2 \vert \log \varepsilon \vert)$ time.

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arXiv2021

Darcy's law as low Mach and homogenization limit of a compressible fluid in perforated domains

We consider the homogenization limit of the compressible barotropic Navier-Stokes equations in a three-dimensional domain perforated by periodically distributed identical particles. We study the regime of particle sizes and distances such that the volume fraction of particles tends to zero but their resistance density tends to infinity. Assuming that the Mach number is increasing with a certain rate, the rescaled velocity and pressure of the microscopic system converges to the solution of an effective equation which is given by Darcy's law. The range of sizes of particles we consider are exactly the same which lead to Darcy's law in the homogenization limit of incompressible fluids. Unlike previous results for the Darcy regime we estimate the deficit related to the pressure approximation via the Bogovski\u{ı} operator This allows for more flexible estimates of the pressure in Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces and allows to proof convergence results for all barotropic exponents $γ> \frac32$.

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arXiv2021

The Influence of Einstein's Effective Viscosity on Sedimentation at Very Small Particle Volume Fraction

We investigate the sedimentation of identical inertialess spherical particles in a Stokes fluid in the limit of many small particles. It is known that the presence of the particles leads to an increase of the effective viscosity of the suspension. By Einstein's formula this effect is of the order of the particle volume fraction $ϕ$. The disturbance of the fluid flow responsible for this increase of viscosity is very singular (like $|x|^{-2}$). Nevertheless, for well-prepared initial configurations and $ϕ\to 0$, we show that the microscopic dynamics is approximated to order $ϕ^2 |\log ϕ|$ by a macroscopic coupled transport-Stokes system with an effective viscosity according to Einstein's formula. We provide quantitative estimates both for convergence of the densities in the $p$-Wasserstein distance for all $p$ and for the fluid velocity in Lebesgue spaces in terms of the $p$-Wasserstein distance of the initial data. Our proof is based on approximations through the method of reflections and on a generalization of a classical result on convergence to mean-field limits in the infinite Wasserstein metric by Hauray.

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arXiv2020

Mild assumptions for the derivation of Einstein's effective viscosity formula

We provide a rigorous derivation of Einstein's formula for the effective viscosity of dilute suspensions of $n$ rigid balls, $n \gg 1$, set in a volume of size $1$. So far, most justifications were carried under a strong assumption on the minimal distance between the balls: $d_{min} \ge c n^{-\frac{1}{3}}$, $c > 0$. We relax this assumption into a set of two much weaker conditions: one expresses essentially that the balls do not overlap, while the other one gives a control of the number of balls that are close to one another. In particular, our analysis covers the case of suspensions modelled by standard Poisson processes with almost minimal hardcore condition.

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arXiv2020

Homogenization for the Stokes equations in randomly perforated domains under almost minimal assumptions on the size of the holes

We prove the homogenization to the Brinkman equations for the incompressible Stokes equations in a bounded domain which is perforated by a random collection of small spherical holes. The fluid satisfies a no-slip boundary condition at the holes. The balls generating the holes have centres distributed according to a Poisson point process and i.i.d. unbounded radii satisfying a suitable moment condition. We stress that our assumption on the distribution of the radii does not exclude that, with overwhelming probability, the holes contain clusters made by many overlapping balls. We show that the formation of these clusters has no effect on the limit Brinkman equations. Due to the incompressiblility condition and the lack of a maximum principle for the Stokes equations, our proof requires a very careful study of the geometry of the random holes generated by the class of probability measures considered.

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arXiv2020

Convergence of the pressure in the homogenization of the Stokes equations in randomly perforated domains

We consider the homogenization to the Brinkman equations for the incompressible Stokes equations in a bounded domain which is perforated by a random collection of small spherical holes. This problem has been studied by the same authors in [A. Giunti and R.M. Höfer, Homogenization for the Stokes equations in randomly perforated domains under almost minimal assumptions on the size of the holes] where convergence of the fluid velocity field towards the solution of the Brinkman equations has been established. In the present we consider the pressure associated to the solution of the Stokes equations in the perforated domain. We prove that it is possible to extend this pressure inside the holes and slightly modify it in a region of asymptotically negligible harmonic capacity such that it weakly converges to the pressure associated with the solution of the Brinkman equations.

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arXiv2018

The inertialess limit of particle sedimentation modeled by the Vlasov-Stokes equations

We study the Vlasov-Stokes equations which macroscopically model the sedimentation of a cloud of particles in a fluid, where particle inertia are taken into account but fluid inertia are assumed to be negligible. We consider the limit when the inertia of the particles tends to zero, and obtain convergence of the dynamics to the solution of an associated inertialess system of equations. This system coincides with the model that can be derived as the homogenization limit of the microscopic inertialess dynamics.

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arXiv2016

Sedimentation of Inertialess Particles in Stokes Flows

We investigate the sedimentation of a cloud of rigid, spherical particles of identical radii under gravity in a Stokes fluid. Both inertia and rotation of particles are neglected. We consider the homogenization limit of many small particles in the case of a dilute system in which interactions between particles are still important. In the relevant time scale, we rigorously prove convergence of the dynamics to the solution of a macroscopic equation. This macroscopic equation resembles the Stokes equations for a fluid of variable density subject to gravitation.

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