Stretching and breaking of particles in compressible random flows

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Main Authors: Roy, Dipankar, Afonso, Marco Martins, Picardo, Jason R., Vincenzi, Dario
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Roy, Dipankar
Afonso, Marco Martins
Picardo, Jason R.
Vincenzi, Dario
author_facet Roy, Dipankar
Afonso, Marco Martins
Picardo, Jason R.
Vincenzi, Dario
contents A key feature of turbulent suspensions that involve floating particles on the surface or inertial particles in the bulk is the compressibility of the effective particle-phase velocity field. Little, however, is known about the effects of small-scale flow compressibility on the stretching and breaking of particles. Here, we gain insight into the nature of these effects by studying the deformation of tiny particles in model fluctuating flows. We consider a generic particle with extensional dynamics that are governed by a vector model, which accounts for elasticity, internal viscosity, and non-affine deformation. Applying the dynamical systems approach of Balkovsky, Fouxon & Lebedev (2000), we first obtain general results for the stationary statistics of particle extension in compressible chaotic flows. We then specialize to a time-decorrelated Gaussian random flow and derive an exact solution for the Batchelor regime of the compressible Kraichnan model. We also perform numerical simulations for a time-correlated renewing flow. While straining is suppressed on the average in compressible flows, our results show that large deviations of the strain rate strongly stretch particles and give rise to a power-law distribution of extensions. Extreme straining events are particularly important for stiff particles and, in the examples considered here, give rise to a counter-intuitive effect: stiff particles stretch more and break faster in flows of increasing compressibility. Highly-elastic particles, whose deformation is dictated by the mean straining, stretch less and break slower. Though based on specific random flows, our work shows how compressibility can affect the extensional dynamics of particles by altering the fluctuations of the strain rate, including its large deviations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_08632
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stretching and breaking of particles in compressible random flows
Roy, Dipankar
Afonso, Marco Martins
Picardo, Jason R.
Vincenzi, Dario
Fluid Dynamics
Statistical Mechanics
Chaotic Dynamics
A key feature of turbulent suspensions that involve floating particles on the surface or inertial particles in the bulk is the compressibility of the effective particle-phase velocity field. Little, however, is known about the effects of small-scale flow compressibility on the stretching and breaking of particles. Here, we gain insight into the nature of these effects by studying the deformation of tiny particles in model fluctuating flows. We consider a generic particle with extensional dynamics that are governed by a vector model, which accounts for elasticity, internal viscosity, and non-affine deformation. Applying the dynamical systems approach of Balkovsky, Fouxon & Lebedev (2000), we first obtain general results for the stationary statistics of particle extension in compressible chaotic flows. We then specialize to a time-decorrelated Gaussian random flow and derive an exact solution for the Batchelor regime of the compressible Kraichnan model. We also perform numerical simulations for a time-correlated renewing flow. While straining is suppressed on the average in compressible flows, our results show that large deviations of the strain rate strongly stretch particles and give rise to a power-law distribution of extensions. Extreme straining events are particularly important for stiff particles and, in the examples considered here, give rise to a counter-intuitive effect: stiff particles stretch more and break faster in flows of increasing compressibility. Highly-elastic particles, whose deformation is dictated by the mean straining, stretch less and break slower. Though based on specific random flows, our work shows how compressibility can affect the extensional dynamics of particles by altering the fluctuations of the strain rate, including its large deviations.
title Stretching and breaking of particles in compressible random flows
topic Fluid Dynamics
Statistical Mechanics
Chaotic Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08632