Intermittency and collisions of fast sedimenting droplets in turbulence

Abstract

The formation of large drops via collisions of droplets in warm clouds constitutes a major unsolved problem in rain prediction studies. Often typical turbulent accelerations of parcels of air that generate collisions are much smaller than gravitational acceleration. We manage to provide a complete theory in the limit of small accelerations and confirm it by direct numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes turbulence. However, the theory is limited to Reynolds numbers much smaller than those in clouds, where, as we show, huge Reynolds number can overturn many existing paradigms.