Mechanisms of particle clustering in Gaussian and non-Gaussian synthetic turbulence

We use synthetic turbulence simulations to study how inertial particles cluster in a turbulent flow, for a wide range of Stokes numbers. Two different types of synthetic turbulence are used: one Gaussian, where the time evolution of the velocity field is a simple phase shift, and one non-Gaussian, where convection is used to evolve the velocity field in time. In both flow types we observe significant particle clustering over a wide range of scales and Stokes numbers. The clustering found at low Stokes numbers can be attributed to the vortex centrifuge effect, where heavy particles are expelled from regions dominated by vorticity. This mechanism is much more effective in the non-Gaussian turbulence, because local flow structures are convected with the particles. The preferential sampling of regions with low vorticity is almost negligible in the Gaussian turbulence. At higher Stokes numbers, caustics are formed in a very similar manner in both Gaussian and non-Gaussian synthetic turbulence. In non-Gaussian turbulence, heavy particles cluster in regions of low fluid kinetic energy, while the opposite is true in Gaussian turbulence. Our results show that synthetic simulations cannot correctly predict how the particle clustering correlates with local fluid flow properties, without including convection.