Bouncing behaviour of a particle settling through a density transition layer

TL;DR

This study investigates the bouncing behavior of a particle settling through a three-layer stratified fluid, combining experiments and simulations to identify flow conditions and forces responsible for bouncing, especially focusing on the role of wake dynamics and Reynolds number.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the bouncing mechanism in stratified fluids, highlighting the influence of wake flow and identifying critical Reynolds numbers for bouncing onset.

Findings

Bouncing occurs below a critical lower Reynolds number (~30-46).

Wake detachment and jet flow are essential for bouncing.

Enhanced drag from wake buoyancy influences particle motion.

Abstract

The present work focuses on a specific bouncing behaviour as a particle settling through a three-layer stratified fluid in the absence of neutral buoyant position, which was firstly discovered by Abaid, N., Adalsteinsson D., Agyapong A. & McLaughlin, R.M. (2004) in salinity-induced stratification. Both experiments and numerical simulations are carried out. In our experiments, illuminated by a laser sheet on the central plane of the particle, its bouncing behaviour is well captured. We find that the bouncing process starts after the wake detaches from the particle. The PIV results show that an upward jet is generated at the central axis behind the particle after the wake breaks. By conducting a force decomposition procedure, we quantify the enhanced drag caused by the buoyancy of the wake ($F_{sb}$) and the flow structure ($F_{sj}$). It is noted that $F_{sb}$ contributes primarily to the enhanced drag at the early stage, which becomes less dominant after the detachment of the wake. In contrast, $F_{sj}$ plays a pivotal role in reversing the particle's motion. We conjecture that the jet flow is a necessary condition for the occurrence of bouncing motion. Then, we examine the minimal velocities (negative values when bounce occurs) of the particle by varying the lower Reynolds number $Re_l$, the Froude number $Fr$ and the upper Reynolds number $Re_u$ within the ranges $1 \leq Re_l\leq 125$, $115 \leq Re_u\leq 356$ and $2 \leq Fr\leq 7$. We find that the bouncing behaviour is primarily determined by $Re_l$. In our experiments, the bouncing motion is found to occur below a critical lower Reynolds number around $Re^ \ast _{l}=30$. In the numerical simulations, the highest value for this critical number is $Re^ \ast _{l}=46.2$, limited in the currently studied parametric ranges.