English

Flow structures govern particle collisions in turbulence

Fluid Dynamics 2019-03-27 v2 Chaotic Dynamics Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics

Abstract

The role of the spatial structure of a turbulent flow in enhancing particle collision rates in suspensions is an open question. We show and quantify, as a function of particle inertia, the correlation between the multiscale structures of turbulence and particle collisions: Straining zones contribute predominantly to rapid head-on collisions compared to vortical regions. We also discover the importance of vortex-strain worm-rolls, which goes beyond ideas of preferential concentration and may explain the rapid growth of aggregates in natural processes, such as the initiation of rain in warm clouds.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1810.10285,
  title  = {Flow structures govern particle collisions in turbulence},
  author = {Jason R. Picardo and Lokahith Agasthya and Rama Govindarajan and Samriddhi Sankar Ray},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.10285},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

10 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T04:51:02.685Z