Self-organizing particle dispersion mechanism in a plane wake

Abstract

Experimental and numerical results concerning solid particle motion in a plane wake are presented that demonstrate the importance of large-scale vortex structures in self-organizing dispersion processes. Previous studies have demonstrated that a time scale ratio involving the aerodynamic response time of the particles and a characteristic time of the vortex structures is an important parameter for indicating the qualitative and quantitative nature of the dispersion process. A stretching and folding mechanism associated with vortex development and merging interactions has been suggested as a description for characterizing particle dispersion in plane mixing layers at intermediate time scale ratios. For plane wakes where large-scale vortex mergers rarely occur, a highly organized particle dispersion process focuses intermediate time scale ratio particles along the boundaries of the large-scale vortices. The fractal correlation dimension associated with chaotic systems is found to be a useful parameter for quantifying the relative organization of the dispersion patterns as a function of the particle time scale ratio.