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Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 174504 (2008) [4 pages]

Transport of Finite-Sized Particles in Chaotic Flow

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Nicholas T. Ouellette1,*, P. J. J. O’Malley1, and J. P. Gollub1,2,†
1Department of Physics, Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania 19041, USA
2Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19014, USA

Received 26 June 2008; published 24 October 2008

By extending traditional particle tracking techniques, we study the dynamics of neutrally buoyant finite-sized particles in a spatiotemporally chaotic flow. We simultaneously measure the flow field and the trajectories of millimeter-scale particles so that the two can be directly compared. While the single-point statistics of the particles are indistinguishable from the flow statistics, the particles often move in directions that are systematically different from the underlying flow. These differences are especially evident when Lagrangian statistics are considered.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.174504
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.174504
PACS:
47.55.Kf, 47.80.Jk

*Present address: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.

jgollub@haverford.edu