Preferential concentration of heavy particles in turbulence

Abstract

Particle-laden flows are of relevant interest in many industrial and natural systems. When the carrier flow is turbulent, a striking feature is the phenomenon called preferential concentration: particles denser than the fluid have the tendency to inhomogeneously distribute in space, forming clusters and depleted regions. We present an investigation of clustering of small water droplets in homogeneous and isotropic active-grid-generated turbulence. We investigate the effect of Reynolds number (R_λ) and Stokes number (St) on particles clustering in the range R_λ ∼ 200−400 and St ∼ 2−10. Using Voronoï diagrams, we characterise clustering level and cluster properties (geometry, typical dimension and fractality). The exact same Voronoï analysis is then applied to investigate clustering properties of specific topological points of the velocity field of homogeneous isotropic turbulence obtained from direct numerical simulations at R_λ ∼ 220 and 300. The goal is to compare clustering properties of actual particles with those of such points in order to explore the relevance of possible clustering mechanisms, including centrifugal effects (heavy particles sampling preferentially low-vorticity regions) and sweep-stick mechanisms (heavy particles preferentially sticking to low-acceleration points). Our study points towards a leading role of zero-acceleration points and sweep-stick effects, at least for the experimental conditions considered in this study.

Keywords:

• turbulent multi-phase flows
• turbulent mixing

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the French Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (project ANR-12-BS09-011-03), the COST action on ‘Particles in turbulence’ (project MP0806) and the French-Argentinian ECOS-Sud program (project A08U02).