Drag on chains and agglomerates of spheres in viscous newtonian and power law fluids

New experimental data on the free settling velocity of straight chains (up to twenty spheres) and planar clusters of touching spheres in Newionian and power law media are reported. The results embrace the following ranges of conditions: 0.65 ≤ n ≤ 1; Re < - 2.5 and 1.22 < m < 48.87 Pa·sⁿ. The straight chain drag measurements are in line with theoretical predictions for Newtonian fluids. The present results in power law fluids seem to suggest that it is possible to express the drag on a straight chain of spheres in terms of that on a single sphere of equal volume. Limited results with planar clusters are satisfactorily correlated using a volume equivalent sphere diameter.