Dynamics of inertial disk particles in turbulent channel flow

A suspension of oblate spheroidal (disk-like) particles in turbulent channel flow has been investigated with focus on the translational and rotational particle statistics. The effects of particle aspect ratio and inertia have been explored. The disk-like particles exhibited a significant preferential orientation in the plane of the mean shear. The influence of the particle shape on the orientation and rotation diminished as translational inertia increased from Stokes number 1 to 30. Isotropization of both orientation and rotation could be observed in the core region of the channel. Keywords: oblate spheroids, preferential orientation, shape effects, inertia effects