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This paper reports on a numerical study of forced two-dimensional turbulence in a periodic channel with flat no-slip walls. Since corners or curved domain boundaries, which are met in the standard rectangular, square, or circular geometries, are absent in this geometry, the (statistical) analysis of the flow is substantially simplified. Moreover, the use of a standard Fourier–Chebyshev pseudospectral algorithm enables high integral-scale Reynolds number simulations. The paper focuses on (i) the influence of the aspect ratio of the channel and (ii) the integral-scale Reynolds number on the large-scale self-organization of the flow. It is shown that for small aspect ratios, a unidirectional flow spontaneously emerges, notably in the absence of a pressure gradient in the longitudinal direction. For larger aspect ratios, the flow tends to organize into an array of counter-rotating vortical structures. The computed energy and enstrophy spectra provide further evidence that the injection of small-scale vorticity at the no-slip walls modify the inertial-range scaling. Additionally, the quasistationary final state of decaying turbulence is interpreted in terms of the Stokes modes of a viscous channel flow. Finally, the transport of a passive tracer material is studied with emphasis on the role of the large-scale flow on the dispersion and the spectral properties of the tracer variance in the presence of no-slip boundaries.

Sedimenting and sheared bidisperse homogeneous suspensions of non-Brownian particles are investigated by numerical simulations in the limit of vanishing small Reynolds number and negligible inertia of the particles. The numerical approach is based on the solution of the three-dimensional Stokes equations forced by the presence of the dispersed phase. Multi-body hydrodynamic interactions are achieved by a low order multipole expansion of the velocity perturbation. The accuracy of the model is validated on analytic solutions of generic flow configurations involving a pair of particles. The first part of the paper aims at investigating the dynamics of monodisperse and bidisperse suspensions embedded in a linear shear flow. The macroscopic transport properties due to hydrodynamic and non hydrodynamic interactions (short range repulsion force) show good agreement with previous theoretical and experimental works on homogeneous monodisperse particles. Increasing the volumetric concentration of the suspension leads to an enhancement of particle fluctuations and self-diffusion. The velocity fluctuation tensor scales linearly up to 15% concentration. Multi-body interactions weaken the correlation of velocity fluctuations and lead to a diffusion like motion of the particles. Probability density functions show a clear transition from Gaussian to exponential tails while the concentration decreases. The behavior of bidisperse suspensions is more complicated, since the respective amount of small and large particles modifies the overall response of the flow. Our simulations show that, for a given concentration of both species, when the size ratio varies from 1 to 2.5, the fluctuation level of the small particles is strongly enhanced. A similar trend is observed on the evolution of the shear induced self-diffusion coefficient. Thus for a fixed and total concentration, increasing the respective volume fraction of large particles can double the velocity fluctuation of small particles. In the second part of the paper, the sedimentation of a single test particle embedded in a suspension of monodisperse particles allows the determination of basic hydrodynamic interactions involved in a bidisperse suspension. Good agreement is achieved when comparing the mean settling velocity and fluctuations levels of the test sphere with experiments. Two distinct behaviors are observed depending on the physical properties of the particle. The Lagrangian velocity autocorrelation function has a negative region when the test particle has a settling velocity twice as large as the reference velocity of the surrounding suspension. The test particle settles with a zig-zag vertical trajectory while a strong reduction of horizontal dispersion occurs. Then, several configurations of bidisperse settling suspensions are investigated. Mean velocity depends on concentration of both species, density ratio and size ratio. Results are compared with theoretical predictions at low concentration and empirical correlations when the assumption of a dilute regime is no longer valid. For particular configurations, a segregation instability sets in. Columnar patterns tend to collect particles of the same species and eventually a complete separation of the suspension is observed. The instability threshold is compared with experiments in the case of suspensions of buoyant and heavy spheres. The basic features are well reproduced by the simulation model.

This paper studies the gravity influence on collisions of monodispersed droplets in homogeneous isotropic turbulence by means of direct numerical simulations (DNSs). The DNS results show that, in certain Stokes and Reynolds regimes, collision frequencies are significantly reduced in the presence of gravity. Those decreases are mainly attributable to the decrease in the droplet relative velocity, since the change in radial distribution function—often referred to preferential concentration—is small. Further analysis of the results reveals that droplet sedimentation due to gravity shortens the droplet-fluid interaction time, consequently weakening the relative motions between droplets. These observations lead to an analytical model that can be used to estimate the velocity fluctuations of sedimenting particles under gravity. Utilizing this model, we constructed a further analytical model for estimating the gravitational influence on collisions. Given flow and particle parameters, the model calculates the ratio of collision frequencies with and without the effect of gravity. Past studies simply noted that the gravitational influence is negligible when the droplet sedimenting velocity is much smaller than the flow velocity fluctuations. Our analytical model further suggests that the gravitational influence on collisions of monodispersed cloud droplets with non-negligible sedimentation rates stays negligibly small even in high Reynolds number flows, such as those typically found in convective clouds.