WRITTEN REPORT

Particles are suspended in a dilute electrolyte that is drawn through a small orifice with a voltage applied
across it (Figure 1.11). A voltage pulse is recorded as particles flow through the orifice. The amplitude of
the pulse is proportional to the volume of the particle passing through the orifice. Thus, by counting and
classifying pulses based on amplitude, this technique can provide a number distribution of the
equivalent volume sphere diameter. The lower size limit is determined by the smallest practical orifice,
while the upper size limit is determined by the need to keep particles suspended. Although viscous
liquids such as water can be used to reduce sedimentation, the practical size range for this method is
0.3-1000 mm.

At higher relative velocities, the inertia of the fluid begins to dominate (the fluid must accelerate out of
the way of the particle). Analytical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations is not possible under these
conditions. However, experiments give the relationship between the drag coefficient and the particle
Reynolds number in the form of the so-called standard drag curve (Figure 2.1). Four regions are
identified: the Stokes’ law region; the Newton’s law region in which drag coefficient is independent of
Reynolds number; an intermediate region between the Stokes and Newton regions; and the boundary
layer separation region. The Reynolds number ranges and drag coefficient correlations for these regions
are given in Table 2.1

The separation of the boundary layer prevents the recovery of the pressure at the rear of the sphere,
resulting in an asymmetrical pressure distribution with a higher pressure at the front of the sphere.
Figure 4.1 shows the pressure coefficient of a sphere in terms of the distance from the front stagnation
point over the surface of the sphere in an inviscid flow and in boundary layer flow. The figure shows that
the pressure has an approximate constant value behind the separation point at Reynolds numbers
around Re≈150.000.

The asymmetry of the pressure distribution explains the origin of the form-drag, the magnitude of which
is closely related with the position of the point of separation. The farther the separation points from the
front stagnation point, the smaller the formdrag. For a sphere at high Reynolds number, from Re . =10
000 up to Re . =150 000 , the position of the separation point does not change very much, except with
the change of flow from laminar to turbulent. Therefore, the form-drag will remain approximately
constant. At the same time, the friction-drag, also called skin friction, falls proportional to 1 2 Re− . From
these observations, we can conclude that, for Reynolds numbers of about 1 000 Re . = , the viscous
interaction force has diminished sufficiently for its contribution to the total interaction force to be
negligible. Therefore, between Re . ≈10 000 to Re . ≈150 000 the drag coefficient is approximately
constant at C . D ≈ 0 44 .