Settling speed of a nearly occluding sphere without through-flow ($U\sim 8\sqrt{2}\Delta \rho g{d}^{5/2}/(27\pi \mu \sqrt{R})$)

A sphere of radius $R$ settling in a stationary cylindrical tube of radius $R+d$, with $d\ll R$ and zero net through-flow, has leading speedThe neck gap is $H(z)=d+z^2/(2R)$. In the sphere frame, leading bypass flux per circumferential length is $q\simeq UR/2$; wall-motion transport is smaller by $d/R$. The pressure-driven flux through a parabolic lubrication gap gives $\Delta p=9\pi \mu UR\sqrt{2R}/(4d^{5/2})$. Pressure dominates the sphere drag, $F\simeq \pi R^2\Delta p$, and balancing $F$ against $4\pi R^3\Delta \rho g/3$ proves the speed. Tube end conditions allowing appreciable net flow change the bypass balance and can give other drag regimes.

For an off-axis nearly occluding sphere with radial offset $e<d$, the local minimum gap is $d(\varphi )=d+e\cos \varphi$ to leading order. Each circumferential strip has pressure-driven conductance proportional to $d(\varphi {)}^{5/2}$, and the strips act in parallel. Thus its speed at fixed load is multiplied relative to the concentric value byConvexity and the zero average of cosine make this greater than one for nonzero $ϵ$. It increases strictly with $ϵ$: pair the positive and negative cosine contributions to the derivative, obtaining factors $c[(1+ϵc{)}^{3/2}-(1-ϵc{)}^{3/2}]>0$ for $c>0$. Consequently an off-axis sphere falls faster in this narrow-gap, no-through-flow regime.