On the condensational growth of droplets in isotropic turbulence

The role of thermal inertia of droplets in the broadening of the droplet size distribution in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence is investigated. A new model for the condensational growth of water droplets, which takes into account the finite thermal relaxation time of droplets, is formulated. Results from direct numerical simulations with vanishing mean supersaturation in the two-way coupling regime show an increase of droplet size variance due to the increased fluctuations in the supersaturation field seen by each particle, which produce a differentiation of the growth conditions.