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A high precision model for the terminal settling velocity of drops in fluid medium

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Abstract

The terminal settling velocity (TSV) calculation of drops and other spherical objects in fluid medium is a classical problem, which has important application values in many fields such as the study of cloud and precipitation processes, the evaluation of soil erosion, and the determination of fluid viscosity coefficient etc. In this paper, a new explicit approximation model of TSV is established, which combines the theoretical solution of N-S equation about fluid motion around spherical objects and the statistical regression of solution dimensionless coefficients with measurement data. This new model can adapt to different values of drop parameters and medium parameters in a large range of Re. By this model, the relative and absolute calculation errors of TSV are in range of −3.42%−+ 4.34% and −0.271 m/s−+ 0.128 m/s respectively for drop radius 0.005−2.9 mm. Their corresponding root mean square values are 1.77% and 0.084 m/s respectively, which are much smaller than that of past theoretical and empirical models.

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Correspondence to Qiu Yin.

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Author Biographies

Qiu YIN is a Research Professor of Shanghai Meteorological Service, China Meteorological Administration (CMA). He received his BS and MS degrees in atmospheric physics from Nanjing University and Ph.D Degree in physical electronics from Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). His research interests include atmospheric radiation model, spectral remote sensing information processing and application. He has published 2 national remote sensing standards and more than 100 academic papers.

Ci SONG is a Lecturer of College of Science, Zhongyuan University of Technology and post-doctor of School of Communication and Information Engineering, Shanghai University. She received her BS Degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from Henan Normal University in 2008, MS Degree in mathematics and applied mathematics from East China Normal University and Ph.D in physical geography from East China Normal University. Her research interests include remote sensing information processing and application, remote sensing mechanism and radiation transmission.

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Yin, Q., Song, C. A high precision model for the terminal settling velocity of drops in fluid medium. Front. Earth Sci. 15, 947–955 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-020-0835-z

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