No Arabic abstract
Spatial distributions of heavy particles suspended in an incompressible isotropic and homogeneous turbulent flow are investigated by means of high resolution direct numerical simulations. In the dissipative range, it is shown that particles form fractal clusters with properties independent of the Reynolds number. Clustering is there optimal when the particle response time is of the order of the Kolmogorov time scale $tau_eta$. In the inertial range, the particle distribution is no longer scale-invariant. It is however shown that deviations from uniformity depend on a rescaled contraction rate, which is different from the local Stokes number given by dimensional analysis. Particle distribution is characterized by voids spanning all scales of the turbulent flow; their signature in the coarse-grained mass probability distribution is an algebraic behavior at small densities.
We study motion of small particles in turbulence when the particle relaxation time falls in the range of inertial time-scales of the flow. Due to inertia, particles drift relative to the fluid. We show that the drift velocity is close to the Lagrangian velocity increments of turbulence at the particle relaxation time. We demonstrate that the collective drift of two close particles makes them see local velocity increments fluctuate fast and we introduce the corresponding Langevin description for separation dynamics. This allows to describe the behavior of the Lyapunov exponent and give the analogue of Richardsons law for separation above viscous scale.
Clustering of inertial particles is important for many types of astrophysical and geophysical turbulence, but it has been studied predominately for incompressible flows. Here we study compressible flows and compare clustering in both compressively (irrotationally) and vortically (solenoidally) forced turbulence. Vortically and compressively forced flows are driven stochastically either by solenoidal waves or by circular expansion waves, respectively. For compressively forced flows, the power spectra of the density of inertial particles are a particularly sensitive tool for displaying particle clustering relative to the density enhancement. We use both Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions for the particles. Particle clustering through shock interaction is found to be particularly prominent in turbulence driven by spherical expansion waves. It manifests itself through a double-peaked distribution of spectral power as a function of Stokes number. The two peaks are associated with two distinct clustering mechanisms; shock interaction for smaller Stokes numbers and the centrifugal sling effect for larger values. The clustering of inertial particles is associated with the formation of caustics. Such caustics can only be captured in the Lagrangian description, which allows us to assess the relative importance of caustics in vortically and irrotationally forced turbulence. We show that the statistical noise resulting from the limited number of particles in the Lagrangian description can be removed from the particle power spectra, allowing us a more detailed comparison of the residual spectra. We focus on the Epstein drag law relevant for rarefied gases, but show that our findings apply also to the usual Stokes drag.
We present a sweep-stick mechanism for heavy particles transported by a turbulent flow under the action of gravity. Direct numerical simulations show that these particles preferentially explore regions of the flow with close to zero Lagrangian acceleration. However, the actual Lagrangian acceleration of the fluid elements where particles accumulate is not zero, and has a dependence on the Stokes number, the gravity acceleration, and the settling velocity of the particles.
Despite considerable progress during the last decades in devising a semiclassical theory for classically chaotic quantum systems a quantitative semiclassical understanding of their dynamics at late times (beyond the so-called Heisenberg time $T_H$) is still missing. This challenge, corresponding to resolving spectral structures on energy scales below the mean level spacing, is intimately related to the quest for semiclassically restoring quantum unitarity, which is reflected in real-valued spectral determinants. Guided through insights for quantum graphs we devise a periodic-orbit resummation procedure for quantum chaotic systems invoking periodic-orbit self encounters as the structuring element of a hierarchical phase space dynamics. We propose a way to purely semiclassically construct real spectral determinants based on two major underlying mechanisms: (i) Complementary contributions to the spectral determinant from regrouped pseudo orbits of duration $T < T_H$ and $T_H-T$ are complex conjugate to each other. (ii) Contributions from long periodic orbits involving multiple traversals along shorter orbits cancel out. We furthermore discuss implications for interacting $N$-particle quantum systems with a chaotic classical large-$N$ limit that have recently attracted interest in the context of many-body quantum chaos.
A recent model of Ariel et al. [1] for explaining the observation of Levy walks in swarming bacteria suggests that self-propelled, elongated particles in a periodic array of regular vortices perform a super-diffusion that is consistent with Levy walks. The equations of motion, which are reversible in time but not volume preserving, demonstrate a new route to Levy walking in chaotic systems. Here, the dynamics of the model is studied both analytically and numerically. It is shown that the apparent super-diffusion is due to sticking of trajectories to elliptic islands, regions of quasi-periodic orbits reminiscent of those seen in conservative systems. However, for certain parameter values, these islands coexist with asymptotically stable periodic trajectories, causing dissipative behavior on very long time scales.