THREE MODELS FOR RECTILINEAR PARTICLE MOTION WITH THE BASSET HISTORY FORCE

We consider three model problems that describe rectilinear particle motion in a viscous fluid under the influence of the Basset history force. These problems consist of sedimentation starting from rest, impulsive motion in a quiescent fluid, and oscillatory sliding motion. The equations of motion are integro-differential equations with a weakly singular kernel. We derive analytical solutions to all three problems using Laplace transforms and discuss the mathematical relation between the sedimentation and impulsive start problems. We also compare several numerical schemes for solving the integrodifferential equations and benchmark them against the analytical results.