Internal stresses and breakup of rigid isostatic aggregates in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence

By characterising the hydrodynamic stresses generated by statistically homogeneous and isotropic turbulence in rigid aggregates, we estimate theoretically the rate of turbulent breakup of colloidal aggregates and the size distribution of the formed fragments. The adopted method combines direct numerical simulation of the turbulent field with a discrete element method based on Stokesian dynamics. In this way, not only is the mechanics of the aggregate modelled in detail, but the internal stresses are evaluated while the aggregate is moving in the turbulent flow. We examine doublets and cluster–cluster isostatic aggregates, where the failure of a single contact leads to the rupture of the aggregate and breakup occurs when the tensile force at a contact exceeds the cohesive strength of the bond. Owing to the different role of the internal stresses, the functional relationship between breakup frequency and turbulence dissipation rate is very different in the two cases. In the limit of very small and very large values, the frequency of breakup scales exponentially with the turbulence dissipation rate for doublets, while it follows a power law for cluster–cluster aggregates. For the case of large isostatic aggregates, it is confirmed that the proper scaling length for maximum stress and breakup is the radius of gyration. The cumulative fragment distribution function is nearly independent of the mean turbulence dissipation rate and can be approximated by the sum of a small erosive component and a term that is quadratic with respect to fragment size.