Stokes flow past a swarm of porous approximately spheroidal particles with Kuwabara boundary condition

The solution of the problem of symmetrical creeping flow of an incompressible viscous fluid past a swarm of porous approximately spheroidal particles with Kuwabara boundary condition is investigated. The Brinkman equation for the flow inside the porous region and the Stokes equation for the outside region in their stream function formulations are used. As boundary conditions, continuity of velocity and surface stresses across the porous surface and Kuwabara boundary condition on the cell surface are employed. Explicit expressions are investigated for both inside and outside flow fields to the first order in a small parameter characterizing the deformation. As a particular case, the flow past a swarm of porous oblate spheroidal particles is considered and the drag force experienced by each porous oblate spheroid in a cell is evaluated. The dependence of the drag coefficient on permeability for a porous oblate spheroid in an unbounded medium and for a solid oblate spheroid in a cell on the solid volume fraction is discussed numerically an and graphically for various values of the deformation parameter. The earlier known results are then also deduced from the present analysis.