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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2006
The respective effects of an external field and departure of suspended particles from spherical shape on the rotary motion of axisymmetric dipolar particles placed in a homogeneous shear flow are studied. The analysis shows that, owing to cumulative effects, even a weak external field or a small deviation from spherical shape can significantly modify the resulting motion relative to that found in the corresponding classical problems of torque-free particles or dipolar spheres in homogeneous shear. Thus, unlike the latter problems, there are in the present problem cases when all particles approach a single limit cycle; in other cases multiple stable equilibria simultaneously coexist and the orientation space is appropriately divided into corresponding domains of attraction; in some situations possessing appropriate symmetry properties, particles may, depending upon their respective initial orientations, either move along a family of periodic orbits or else converge to a stable equilibrium orientation.