  We investigate the formation and stability of a pair of identical soft
capsules in channel flow under mild inertia. We employ a combination of the
lattice Boltzmann, finite element and immersed boundary methods to simulate the
elastic particles in flow. Validation tests show excellent agreement with
numerical results obtained by other research groups. Our results reveal new
trajectory types that have not been observed for pairs of rigid particles.
While particle softness increases the likelihood of a stable pair forming, the
pair stability is determined by the lateral position of the particles. A key
finding is that stabilisation of the axial distance occurs after lateral
migration of the particles. During the later phase of pair formation, particles
undergo damped oscillations that are independent of initial conditions. These
damped oscillations are driven by a strong hydrodynamic coupling of the
particle dynamics, particle inertia and viscous dissipation. While the
frequency and damping coefficient of the oscillations depend on particle
softness, the pair formation time is largely determined by the initial particle
positions: the time to form a stable pair grows exponentially with the initial
axial distance. Our results demonstrate that particle softness has a strong
impact on the behaviour of particle pairs. The findings could have significant
ramifications for microfluidic applications where a constant and reliable axial
distance between particles is required, such as flow cytometry.
