The movement of small but finite spherical particles in a fluid is described by the Maxey–Riley equation (MRE), which includes a “history term” modeling wake effects that depend on the particle’s full past trajectory. This term complicates numerical solutions and is often neglected, despite evidence of its significance. By simulating particle trajectories with and without the history term in various flow fields, the authors show that ignoring it causes significant differences in clustering for moderate to large Stokes numbers. Additionally, finite-time Lyapunov exponents reveal that even for small particles, neglecting the history term significantly affects scalar fields, especially in turbulent flows.
Urizarna Carasa, Julio; Ruprecht, Daniel; Kameke, Alexandra von; Padberg-Gehle, Kathrin (2025). Relevance of the Basset history term for Lagrangian particle dynamics. Chaos 35 (7) 073122.
