Slipping motion of large neutrally-buoyant particles in turbulence

TL;DR

This study uses direct numerical simulations to analyze how large neutrally-buoyant particles move and modify turbulence, revealing effects like wake shadowing, turbulence suppression, and scaling laws related to particle size.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to define particle slip velocity and explores the flow modifications and turbulence effects caused by large particles in turbulence.

Findings

Particles cause wake shadowing up to their diameter.

Turbulence fluctuations are reduced around particles.

Skin-friction Reynolds number scales as (D_p/η)^{4/3}.

Abstract

Direct numerical simulations are used to investigate the individual dynamics of large spherical particles suspended in a developed homogeneous turbulent flow. A definition of the direction of the particle motion relative to the surrounding flow is introduced and used to construct the mean fluid velocity profile around the particle. This leads to an estimate of the particle slipping velocity and its associated Reynolds number. The flow modifications due to the particle are then studied. The particle is responsible for a shadowing effect that occurs in the wake up to distances of the order of its diameter: the particle pacifies turbulent fluctuations and reduces the energy dissipation rate compared to its average value in the bulk. Dimensional arguments are presented to draw an analogy between particle effects on turbulence and wall flows. Evidence is obtained on the presence of a logarithmic sublayer at distances between the thickness of the viscous boundary layer and the particle diameter $\Dp$. Finally, asymptotic arguments are used to relate the viscous sublayer quantities to the particle size and the properties of the outer turbulence. It is shown in particular that the skin-friction Reynolds number behaves as $Re_\tau \propto (\Dp/\eta)^{4/3}$.