Clustering and turbulence modulation in particle-laden shear flows

Turbulent fluctuations induce the common phenomenon known as clustering in the spatial arrangement of small inertial particles transported by the fluid. Particles spread non-uniformly, and form clusters where their local concentration is much higher than in nearby rarefaction regions. The underlying physics has been exhaustively analysed in the so-called one-way coupling regime, i.e. negligible back-reaction of the particles on the fluid, where the mean flow anisotropy induces preferential orientation of the clusters. Turbulent transport in suspensions with significant mass in the disperse phase, i.e. particles back-reacting in the carrier phase (the two-way coupling regime), has instead been much less investigated and is still poorly understood. The issue is discussed here by addressing direct numerical simulations of particle-laden homogeneous shear flows in the two-way coupling regime. Consistent with previous findings, we observe an overall depletion of the turbulent fluctuations for particles with response time of the order of the Kolmogorov time scale. The depletion occurs in the energy-containing range, while augmentation is observed in the small-scale range down to the dissipative scales. Increasing the mass load results in substantial broadening of the energy cospectrum, thereby extending the range of scales driven by anisotropic production mechanisms. As discussed throughout the paper, this is due to the clusters which form the spatial support of the back-reaction field and give rise to a highly anisotropic forcing, active down to the smallest scales. A certain impact on two-phase flow turbulence modelling is expected from the above conclusions, since the frequently assumed small-scale isotropy is poorly recovered when the coupling between the phases becomes significant.