Rotational intermittency and turbulence induced lift experienced by large particles in a turbulent flow

Robert Zimmermann (1) , Yoann Gasteuil (1) , Mickaël Bourgoin (2) , Romain Volk (1) , Alain Pumir (1) , Jean-François Pinton (1)

1 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon
2 LEGI - Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels [Grenoble]

The motion of a large, neutrally buoyant, particle freely advected by a turbulent flow is determined experimentally. We demonstrate that both the translational and angular accelerations exhibit very wide probability distributions, a manifestation of intermittency. The orientation of the angular velocity with respect to the trajectory, as well as the translational acceleration conditioned on the spinning velocity, provides evidence of a lift force acting on the particle.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Robert Zimmermann, Yoann Gasteuil, Mickaël Bourgoin, Romain Volk, Alain Pumir, et al.. Rotational intermittency and turbulence induced lift experienced by large particles in a turbulent flow. Physical Review Letters, 2011, 106, pp.154501. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.154501⟩. ⟨hal-00941497⟩