Alignment of a flexible platelike particle in shear flow: Effect of surface slip and edges

Rigid plate-like particles displaying interfacial slip can attain a constant orientation in a shear flow when the slip length is sufficiently large. But actual thin particles such as single-layer graphene are prone to bending deformations when exposed to shear stress. To study the effect of bending deformation on the particle's stable orientation, we develop a two-dimensional fluid-structure interaction model. We find that (i) a stable alignment occurs even for relatively flexible particles, and that (ii) edges effects on the shape of the plate are important for values of the length-to-thickness aspect ratio as large as 100.