Contribution to the study of the dislodgment conditions of spheroids from a surface in fluid flow

In this Letter, the concept of an asperity acting as a pivot point is used to investigate the critical conditions under which a spheroid resting on a surface is dislodged by fluid flow. The critical conditions are derived for prolate spheroids with the axis of revolution aligned with the flow direction and deduced for a sphere and oblate spheroids with the axis of revolution perpendicular to the surface. It is also found that the rolling mode always occurs first in the considered configuration.