Neutral and inertial particle acceleration in strained turbulence

Turbulence influences the transport and mixing of particles. We study the dynamics of particles in turbulent flows undergoing asymmetrically expanding straining by means of direct numerical simulations. We investigate the accelerations of tracer and inertial particles. We find a good agreement between tracer acceleration variance and the prediction of rapid distortion theory. Furthermore we study how particle acceleration probability density functions depend on the strain rate, the Stokes number, and the Reynolds number. Accelerations variances of inertial particles are discussed in the context of the formal solution of the equation of particle motion, and we show that in strong straining the acceleration variance of particles with small Stokes numbers can exceed that of tracer particles.