Collective dynamics of interacting particles in unsteady flows (Q2876667)

The paper investigates the collective motion of interacting particles in one-dimensional flows in the presence of an unsteady transient fluid. Of critical interest to the article is to understand how properties of the unsteady carrier fluid build upon the particle-particle interactions to develop spatial patterns. In addition, the paper addresses the stability of such patterns with respect to changes in the density and streaming velocity of the fluid, as well as to variations in the drag coefficient. These results constitute perhaps the main novelty of the paper.NEWLINENEWLINETo investigate the dynamics of particles in one-dimensional flows, the authors recur to the Morse potential theory. The Fokker-Planck equation associated with the particles' motion is used to study the effects of the unsteady motion of the carrier fluid on the formation of patterns in the spatial distribution of particles. A series of numerical experiments closes the paper; these validate its analytical findings.