Suspension and Fall of Heavy Particles in Random Two-Dimensional Flow

We investigate the settling of heavy particles in a steady, two-dimensional random velocity field, and find instances in which particle suspension occurs. This leads to a bimodal velocity distribution that may explain some apparently conflicting results reported in the literature. The bimodal distribution is typically smeared out by a time dependence of the ambient flow but, if the time variation is slow, the settling rates of some particles will be as well. The resulting broadbanded velocity distribution of the settling particles will have significance for processes such as rain drop formation, in which the spread of particle velocities affects the statistics of particle collisions.