Dynamics of finite-sized light spheres in turbulence

Dynamics of finite-sized light spheres in turbulence

Mathai, V.
Prakash, V.
Brons, J.
Sun, C.
Lohse, D.

2015-08-26

We report experimental results on the Lagrangian dynamics of finite-size light particles in turbulence. Using an orthogonal camera setup and 3D particle tracking, we study the velocity and acceleration statistics of rigid light spheres in a water tunnel with nearly homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. The Reynolds number (ReY) is varied from 180 to 300, and the study covers a range of size ratios (4 < D/η < 16) for marginally light spheres. We find that the normalised acceleration PDF decreases in intermittency with increasing size ratio - in qualitative agreement with the predictions of the Faxén corrected model. We also present preliminary results on the rotational dynamics of large light spheres in turbulence.

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(c) 2015 the Authors