Role of constituents of a granular medium on the lift force experienced by a translating and rotating intruder

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, 781039, India
² Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh, 534101, India
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Timpati, AndraPradesh, 517619, India

^* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Currently working at V.S.B Engineering College, Karur, Tamilnadu 639111
^** e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
^*** e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 1 December 2025

Abstract

In this work, we perform numerical simulations to investigate the Magnus effect on an intruder that simultaneously rotates and translates through a granular mixture of dumbbell-shaped and disc-shaped particles in the absence of gravity. We analyze the drag and lift forces acting on the intruder under varying angular velocities (r_v), translational velocities (V_i), and different fractions of dumbbell particles within the system. A key finding of our study is that while both lift (F_L) and drag (F_D) forces are significantly influenced by these parameters, their ratio (F_L/F_D) depends primarily on the spin ratio-a parameter dependent on both translational and rotational velocities-rather than the fraction of dumbbell particles. This suggests a universal scaling behavior of lift and drag forces in granular media, independent of particle shape anisotropy. Our results provide new insights into the inverse Magnus effect in granular flows and its dependence on intruder dynamics.