Identification

Title

Turbulent collision efficiency of heavy particles relevant to cloud droplets

Abstract

The collision efficiency of sedimenting cloud droplets in a turbulent air flow is a key input parameter in predicting the growth of cloud droplets by collision-coalescence. In this study, turbulent collision efficiency was directly computed, using a hybrid direct numerical simulation (HDNS) approach (Ayala et al 2007 J. Comput. Phys. 225 51-73). The HDNS results show that air turbulence enhances the collision efficiency partly due to the fact that aerodynamic interactions (AIs) become less effective in reducing the relative motion of droplets in the presence of background air turbulence. The level of increase in the collision efficiency depends on the flow dissipation rate and the droplet size ratio. For example, the collision efficiency between droplets of 18 and 20 μm in radii is increased by air turbulence (relative to the stagnant air case) by a factor of 4 and 1.6 at dissipation rates of 400 and 100 cm² s⁻³, respectively. The collision efficiency for self-collisions in a bidisperse turbulent suspension can be larger than one. Such an increase in self-collisions is related to the far-field many-body AI and depends on the volumetric concentration of droplets. The total turbulent enhancement agrees qualitatively with previous results, but differs on a quantitative level. In the case of cross-size collisions between 18 and 20 μm droplets, the total turbulent enhancement can be a factor of 7 and 2 at dissipation rates of 400 and 100 cm² s⁻³, respectively. For intermediate size ratios (0.2<a₂/a₁<0.8), the overall enhancement typically falls below 2. Scaling arguments show that the overall enhancement factor tends to peak at the two limiting cases of a₂/a₁→1 and a₂/a₁→0.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7n879zq

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

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Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-07-31T00:00:00Z

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Conformity

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version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact