Mechanism of vibration-induced repulsion force on a particle in a viscous fluid cell

Space platforms such as the Space Shuttle and International Space Station have been considered an ideal environment for production of protein and semiconductor crystals of superior quality due to the negligible gravity-induced convection. Although it was believed that under microgravity environment diffusive mass transport would dominate the growth of the crystals, some related experiments have not shown satisfactory results possibly due to the movement of the growing crystals in fluid cells caused by small vibrations present in the space platforms called g-jitter. In ground-based experiments, there have been clear observations of attraction and repulsion of a solid particle with respect to a nearby wall of the fluid cell due to small vibrations. The present work is a numerical investigation on the physical mechanisms responsible for the repulsion force, which has been predicted to increase with the cell vibration frequency and amplitude, as well as the fluid viscosity. Moreover, the simulations have revealed that the repulsion force occurs mostly due to the increased pressure in the narrow gap between the particle and the nearest wall.