title: Sticky elastic collisions.
abstract: The effects of purely elastic collisions on the dynamics of heavy inertial particles are investigated in a three-dimensional random incompressible flow. It is shown that the statistical properties of interparticle separations and relative velocities are strongly influenced by the occurrence of sticky elastic collisions-particle pairs undergo a large number of collisions against each other during a small time interval over which, hence, they remain close to each other. A theoretical framework is provided for describing and quantifying this phenomenon and it is substantiated by numerical simulations. Furthermore, the impact of hydrodynamic interactions is discussed for such a system of colliding particles.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR 7293, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Bd. de l'Observatoire, 06300 Nice, France.
authors.forename: Jérémie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bec
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Musacchio
authors.forename: Samriddhi Sankar
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Ray