FIG. 5.
(color online). Deconstructing inertial lift. (a) The nondimensional force is plotted for a/H = 0.22 and Rc = 80. Filled triangles correspond to no constraints. Open triangles have a constraint that the sphere is not free to rotate. Squares show data when the sphere is constrained from translating and either constrained from rotation (open) or not (closed). (b) The nondimensional force is plotted along with a measure of the nondimensional shear gradient experienced by a particle for two different aspect ratio channels and a/H = 0.44 and Rc = 80. The gray region indicates a reversal of sign in lift for the 4.1 aspect ratio. (c) Images showing the top and side views of high-aspect ratio channels show two particle equilibrium positions. Dotted lines outline the channels. The scale bar is 50 µm.