Droplet size distribution in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

2011/12/28 by Prasad Perlekar, Luca Biferale, Mauro Sbragaglia +2 · 93 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Breakup #Distribution function #Homogeneous #Homogeneous isotropic turbulence #Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation #Isotropy #Lagrangian #Lattice Boltzmann Simulation Studies #Lattice Boltzmann methods #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows #Reynolds number #Turbulence #nlin.CD #physics.flu-dyn

paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.4719144

published in Physics of Fluids 24(6) (American Institute of Physics) · 10 pages, 6 figures

arxiv created 2011/12/28 · openalex publication_date 2012/06/01 · arxiv updated 2015/06/03 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We study the physics of droplet breakup in a statistically stationary homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flow by means of high resolution numerical investigations based on the multicomponent lattice Boltzmann method. We verified the validity of the criterion proposed by Hinze [AIChE J. 1, 289 (1955)] for droplet breakup and we measured the full probability distribution function of droplets radii at different Reynolds numbers and for different volume fractions. By means of a Lagrangian tracking we could follow individual droplets along their trajectories, define a local Weber number based on the velocity gradients, and study its cross-correlation with droplet deformation.

Citations

• Equation of motion for a small rigid sphere in a nonuniform flow
• Lattice Boltzmann model for simulating flows with multiple phases and components
• Fundamentals of the hydrodynamic mechanism of splitting in dispersion processes

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