Transport of inertial particles in turbulent boundary layers

Abstract

A direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a spatially evolving particle-laden turbulent boundary layer has been performed to study turbophoresis effects in presence of changing local Stokes number. The data show a preferential particle localization near the wall at the streamwise position where the local Stokes number St+ assumes a value close to 25, similarly to that found in channel flow. Note that a complete steady state will never been reached for the particle concentration in this kind of flow. The effects of the seeding and of preferential sampling of the fluid velocity will be described as well.