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Updated: Apr 27, 2026

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow
Published on: May 1, 2018
Anomalous diffusion for inertial particles under gravity in parallel flows
1Laboratoire de Mécanique, Modélisation et Procédés Propres, CNRS UMR 7340, Aix-Marseille Université, Ecole Centrale Marseille, 38 rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 13451 Marseille cedex 13, France.
Abstract:
We investigate the bounds between normal or anomalous effective diffusion for inertial particles transported by parallel flows. The infrared behavior of the fluid kinetic-energy spectrum, i.e., the possible presence of long-range spatiotemporal correlations, is modeled as a power law by means of two parameters, and the problem is studied as a function of these latter. Our results, obtained in the limit of weak relative inertia, extend well-known results for tracers and apply to particles of any mass density, subject to gravity and Brownian diffusion. We consider both steady and time-dependent flows, and cases of both vanishing and finite particle sedimentation.
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