Lift of a solid spherical particle subject to vorticity and/or spin

The lift force can often be significant and can approach the magnitude of drag and gravitational forces for surface spin velocities on the order of the translational particle velocity. A comprehensive review of experimental data was conducted to determine the lift behavior for solid spherical particle lift under shear, spin, or shear and spin. The lift in creeping flow, for linear shear with no spin at small Reynolds numbers, was well studied by the McLaughlin correction to the theoretical Saffman lift. This correction also proved reasonable up to particle relative Reynolds numbers of 50, beyond which lift coefficient tended to negative values. There is a theoretical increase in drag due to flow rotation, for small Reynolds numbers, but the effects of flow shear and spin are negligible. Drag is found to increase for both shear or spin conditions, for moderate-to-high Reynolds numbers, for which empirical relation can be employed.