Tumbling of Inertial Fibers in Turbulence

Anisotropic particles play a major role in many environmental and industrial turbulent flows. The modeling of their rotation dynamics is a fundamental challenge which has some important consequences in industrial processes, such as in the paper making industry. This study investigates the rotation rate of neutrally buoyant fibers longer than the Kolmogorov length η_{K}. We show that the fiber inertia is at the origin of a decrease of the rotation rate. We propose a model which describes this phenomenon. We introduce also a new Stokes number which defines the limit of validity of the classical slender body approximation.