Clustering of gyrotactic microorganisms in turbulent flows
Chaotic Dynamics
2012-06-13 v1 Fluid Dynamics
Abstract
We study the spatial distribution of gyrotactic microorganisms transported by a three-dimensional turbulent flow generated by direct numerical simulations. We find that gyrotaxis combines with turbulent fluctuations to produce small scales (multi-)fractal clustering. We explain this result by showing that gyrotactic swimming cells behave like tracers in a compressible flow. The effective compressibility is derived in the limits of fluid acceleration much larger and smaller than the gravity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1206.2570,
title = {Clustering of gyrotactic microorganisms in turbulent flows},
author = {Filippo De Lillo and Guido Boffetta and Massimo Cencini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.2570},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
5 Latex pages, 5 figures