Accumulation of heavy particles around a helical vortex filament

Abstract

The motion of small heavy particles near a helical vortex filament in incompressible flow is investigated. Both the configurations of a helical vortex filament in free space and a helical vortex filament in a concentric pipe are considered, and the corresponding helically symmetric velocity fields are expressed in terms of a stream function. Particle motion is assumed to be driven by Stokes drag, and the flow fields are assumed to be independent from the motion of particles. Numerical results show that heavy particles may be attracted to helical trajectories. The stability of these attraction trajectories is demonstrated by linear stability analysis. In addition, the correlation between the attraction trajectories and the streamline topologies is investigated. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.