Migration and chaining of noncolloidal spheres suspended in a sheared viscoelastic medium. Experiments and numerical simulations

- We studied flow alignment of noncolloidal spheres by experiments and simulations.
- Microstructure was studied in the gradient-flow and in the flow-vorticity planes.
- Chains of spheres formed in the bulk, with some particles migrated to the walls.
- At long times, chains in the bulk are stable and cross flow migration is suppressed.
- Simulations reproduce the same qualitative phenomena observed experimentally.