Fractal clustering of inertial particles in random flows

Abstract

It is shown that preferential concentrations of inertial (finite-size) particle suspensions in turbulent flows follow from the dissipative nature of their dynamics. In phase space, particle trajectories converge toward a dynamical fractal attractor. Below a critical Stokes number (non-dimensional viscous friction time), the projection on position space is a dynamical fractal cluster; above this number, particles are space filling. Numerical simulations and semi-heuristic theory illustrating such effects are presented for a simple model of inertial particle dynamics.