Caustics and multiscaling of heavy particle velocities in turbulent flow

Jeremie Bec

Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, Nice, France

Recent results on the dynamics of very heavy particles transported by a turbulent flow are reported. It is shown that the difference of velocity between two particles behaves in an anomalous manner with their separation. This is related to the presence of power-law tails in the probability density function of the gradient of the particle velocity field. Implications of these results on estimating the rate at which collisions between particles occur are also discussed.

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