Gravity-driven clustering of inertial particles in turbulence

Yongnam Park; Changhoon Lee

doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.89.061004

Gravity-driven clustering of inertial particles in turbulence

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2014 Jun;89(6):061004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.89.061004. Epub 2014 Jun 26.

Authors

Yongnam Park¹, Changhoon Lee²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea.
² Department of Computational Science and Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodamun-gu, Seoul, Korea.

PMID: 25019716
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.89.061004

Abstract

We report a different kind of particle clustering caused purely by gravity, discovered in our simulation of particle-laden turbulence. Clustering in a vertical strip pattern forms when strong gravity acts on heavy particles. This phenomenon is explained by the skewness of the flow velocity gradient in the gravitational direction experienced by particles, which causes horizontal convergence of particles.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cluster Analysis*
Computer Simulation
Gravitation*
Models, Theoretical
Probability