Pair dispersion and preferential concentration of particles in isotropic turbulence

The objective of the paper is to present a statistical model for predicting pair dispersion and preferential concentration of particles suspended in an isotropic homogeneous turbulent flow field. This model is based on a kinetic equation for the probability density function of the relative velocities of two particles. The model developed is applied to predict the pair relative velocity statistics and the accumulation effect of heavy particles in a steady-state suspension. The effect of particle inertia on the predicted Eulerian two-point particle velocity correlations is demonstrated and compared with known results of numerical simulation. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.