Dissipative particle dynamics simulation of circular and elliptical particles motion in 2D laminar shear flow

Abstract

The dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) method is a relatively new computational method for modeling the dynamics of particles in laminar flows at the mesoscale. In this study, we use the DPD approach to model the motion of circular and elliptical particles in a 2D shear laminar flow. Three examples are considered: (i) evaluation of the drag force exerted on a circular particle moving in a stagnant fluid, (ii) rotation of an elliptical particle around its center in a shear flow, and (iii) motion of an ellipsoidal particle in a linear shear flow. For all cases, we found a good agreement with theoretical and finite element solutions available. These results show that the DPD method can effectively be applied to model motion of micro/nano-particles at the mesoscale. The method proposed can be used to predict the performances of intravascularly administered particles for drug delivery and biomedical imaging. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.