The settling velocity of a single sphere in viscous fluid: The effect of neighboring larger spheres

In this work the settling velocity of a single sphere in a viscous suspension of larger, neutrally buoyant spheres, was experimentally investigated for dilute and semi-dilute conditions. In dilute conditions, the results are in broad agreement with Batchelorʹs theoretical predictions. For more concentrated suspensions, where theoretical predictions are not available any longer, the results could be well represented by less rigorous approaches, such as the pseudo-fluid simplification.