Inertial spheroids in homogeneous, isotropic turbulence

TL;DR

This paper investigates how inertia and shape influence the rotational behavior and flow alignment of spheroidal particles in turbulence, revealing their impact on particle-flow interactions in natural and industrial contexts.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the dependence of spheroid alignment and decorrelation times on inertia and aspect ratio in turbulent flows.

Findings

Inertia causes preferential flow sampling by spheroids.

Alignment and decorrelation times depend on particle inertia and aspect ratio.

Results are relevant for turbulent transport of asymmetric particles.

Abstract

We study the rotational dynamics of {\it inertial} disks and rods in three-dimensional, homogeneous isotropic turbulence. In particular, we show how the alignment and the decorrelation time-scales of such spheroids depend, critically, on both the level of inertia and the aspect ratio of these particles. These results illustrate the effect of inertia---which leads to a preferential sampling of the local flow geometry---on the statistics of both disks and rods in a turbulent flow. Our results are important for a variety of natural and industrial settings where the turbulent transport of asymmetric, spheroidal inertial particles is ubiquitous.