Hydrodynamic particle interactions in linear and radial viscosity gradients

We present a versatile perturbative calculation scheme to determine the leading-order correction to the mobility matrix for particles in a low-Reynolds-number fluid with spatially variant viscosity. To this end, we exploit the Lorentz reciprocal theorem and the reflection method in the far field approximation. To demonstrate how to apply the framework to a particular choice of a viscosity field, we first study particles in a finite-size, interface-like, linear viscosity gradient. The extent of the latter should be significantly larger than the particle separation. Both situations of symmetrically and asymmetrically placed particles within such an odd symmetric viscosity gradient are considered. As a result, long-range flow fields are identified that decay by one order slower than their constant-viscosity counterparts. Self-mobilities for particle rotations and translations are affected, while for asymmetric placement, additional correction appears for the latter. The mobility terms associated with hydrodynamic interactions between the particles also need to be corrected, in a placement-specific manner. While the results are derived for the system of two particles, they apply also to many-particle systems. Furthermore, we treat the viscosity gradients induced by two particles with temperatures different from that of the surrounding fluid. Assuming a linear relation between fluid temperature and viscosity, we find that both the self-mobilities of the particles as well as the mobility terms for hydrodynamic interactions increase for hot particles and decrease for cold particles.

Automated summary

We propose a versatile perturbative calculation scheme to determine the leading-order correction to the mobility matrix for particles in a low-Reynolds-number fluid with spatially variant viscosity. We demonstrate the application of this scheme to particles in a finite-size, linear viscosity gradient and discuss both symmetric and asymmetric particle placements within this gradient. We find that long-range flow fields with slower decay than their constant-viscosity counterparts exist in fluids with viscosity gradients, and that the self-mobilities and hydrodynamic interaction mobilities of the particles are affected.