On clustering of aerosol particles in homogeneous turbulent shear flows

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present a model for predicting clustering of aerosol particles in uniformly sheared turbulent flows laden with small heavy particles. The background of the model for predicting clustering is based on a kinetic equation for the two-point probability density function of the relative velocity distribution of two particles. The effect of clustering of particles in homogeneous turbulent shear flows is demonstrated and compared with known results of direct numerical simulations. It is shown that the universality of the clustering process can take place if the characteristic cluster size is smaller than the shear scale.

Keywords:

• homogeneous turbulence
• clustering
• particles

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project 11-08-00410).