Work

Intermittent Distribution of Inertial Particles in Turbulent Flows

Year: 2001

Type: article

Abstract: We consider inertial particles suspended in an incompressible turbulent flow. Because of particles' inertia their flow is compressible, which leads to fluctuations of concentration significant for heavy particles. We show that the statistics of these fluctuations is independent of details of the velocity statistics, which allows us to predict that the particles cluster on the viscous scale of turbulence and describe the probability distribution of concentration fluctuations. We discuss the possible role of the clustering in the physics of atmospheric aerosols, in particular, in cloud formation.

Source: Physical Review Letters

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.86.2790

Authors: E. Balkovsky, G. Falkovich, A. Fouxon

Institutions: University of California, Santa Barbara, Institute for Advanced Study, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science

Language: English

Topic: Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows

Subfield: Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes

Field: Chemical Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2189962969

FWCI: 18.76

Cites: 14

Cited by: 329

Related to: 9