Binary-fluid turbulence: Signatures of multifractal droplet dynamics and dissipation reduction

Abstract

We study the challenging problem of the advection of an active, deformable, finite-size droplet by a turbulent flow via a simulation of the coupled Cahn-Hilliard-Navier-Stokes (CHNS) equations. In these equations, the droplet has a natural two-way coupling to the background fluid. We show that the probability distribution function of the droplet center of mass acceleration components exhibit wide, non-Gaussian tails, which are consistent with the predictions based on pressure spectra. We also show that the droplet deformation displays multifractal dynamics. Our study reveals that the presence of the droplet enhances the energy spectrum E(k), when the wave number k is large; this enhancement leads to dissipation reduction.