The authors conducted experiments and developed a theoretical model to investigate the orientation dynamics of non-spherical particles settling in still air. They found that heavy submillimeter spheroids exhibit decaying oscillations in their orientation, in contrast to the monotonic relaxation observed in liquids.
The key insights are:
Particle inertia, characterized by the large particle-to-fluid mass density ratio, is the main driver of the oscillatory behavior. This effect must be accounted for in models of atmospheric processes involving non-spherical particles.
The oscillations arise due to a bifurcation in the dynamics, where the orientation relaxation changes from monotonic to oscillatory as the particle Reynolds number increases. This bifurcation occurs at much lower Reynolds numbers than previously observed phenomena like bistability or fluttering.
In turbulent air, particle inertia enhances the randomization of particle orientation compared to the overdamped limit, with important implications for processes like particle collisions and radiative properties of atmospheric clouds.
The model developed by the authors accurately captures the experimental observations across a wide range of particle aspect ratios and Reynolds numbers, demonstrating the importance of properly accounting for fluid inertia effects.
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