An accurate and efficient Lagrangian sub-grid model

A computationally efficient model is introduced to account for the sub-grid scale velocities of tracer particles dispersed in statistically homogeneous and isotropic, incompressible turbulent flows. The model embeds the multi-scale nature of turbulent temporal and spatial correlations, that are essential to reproduce multi-particle dispersion. It is capable to describe the Lagrangian diffusion and dispersion of temporally and spatially correlated clouds of particles. Although the model neglects intermittent corrections, we show that pair and tetrad dispersion results nicely compare with Direct Numerical Simulations of statistically isotropic and homogeneous 3D turbulence. This is in agreement with recent observations that deviations from self-similar pair dispersion statistics are rare events. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.