Filtered particle tracking in isotropic turbulence and stochastic modeling of subgrid-scale dispersion

A numerical study based on the Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation is performed for dispersed phase motion in a turbulent flow. The effect of spatial filtering, commonly employed in large-eddy simulations, and the role of the subgrid scale turbulence on the statistics of heavy particles, including preferential concentration, are studied through a priori analysis of DNS of particle-laden forced isotropic turbulence. In simulations where the subgrid scale kinetic energy attains 30-35% of the total we observe the of residual fluid motions on particles of a smaller inertia. It is shown that neglecting the influence grid scale fluctuations has a significant effect on the preferential concentration of those particles. A stochastic Langevin model is proposed to reconstruct the residual (or subgrid scale) fluid velocity along particle trajectories. The computation results for a selection of particle inertia parameters are performed to appraise the model through comparisons of particle turbulent kinetic energy and the statistics of preferential concentrations. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.