title: Power-law distributions of particle concentration in free-surface flows.
abstract: Particles floating on the surface of a turbulent incompressible fluid accumulate along string-like structures, while leaving large regions of the flow domain empty. This is reflected experimentally by a very peaked probability distribution function of c(r), the coarse-grained particle concentration at scale r, around c(r)=0, with a power-law decay over two decades of c(r), Pi(c(r)) proportional, variant c(r)(-beta(r)). The positive exponent beta(r) decreases with scale in the inertial range and stays approximately constant in the dissipative range, thus, indicating a qualitative difference between the dissipative and the inertial ranges of scales, also visible in the first moment of c(r).
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA. jml37+@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Larkin
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Bandi
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pumir
authors.forename: Walter I
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Goldburg