Inertial floaters in stratified turbulence

Abstract

We investigate numerically the dynamics and statistics of inertial particles transported by stratified turbulence, in the case of particle density intermediate in the average density profile of the fluid. In these conditions, particles tend to form a thin layer around the corresponding fluid isopycnal. The thickness of the resulting layer is determined by a balance between buoyancy (which attracts the particle to the isopycnal) and inertia (which prevents them from following it exactly). By means of extensive numerical simulations, we explore the parameter space of the system and we find that in a range of parameters particles form fractal cluster within the layer.

6 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Dimensional transition of energy cascades in stably stratified thin fluid layers

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Cascades and transitions in turbulent flows
• Statistics of single and multiple floaters in experiments of surface wave turbulence
• Accumulated densities of sedimenting particles in turbulent flows
• Settling and clustering of particles of moderate mass density in turbulence
• Vertical dispersion of Lagrangian tracers in fully developed stably stratified turbulence
• Lagrangian irreversibility and energy exchanges in rotating-stratified turbulent flows
• Bounds to the Basset-Boussinesq force on particle laden stratified flows