In a turbulent flow field, we can associate the force for
keeping pollen suspended into the atmosphere with wallnormal
turbulent velocity fluctuations. Simplistically, i.e. if
particle inertia is neglected, upward directed turbulent
fluctuating velocities in excess of the particle’s settling
velocity would lift the particle upwards provided their
strength exceeds aminimum threshold imposed by the pollen
settling velocity. Since the mean settling velocity of corn
pollen in turbulent flows was not measured, the quiescent air
value is used as a reference, wt
s ¼ 0:27ms1. However, the
vertical velocity fluctuations are time dependent and particle
inertia may become important, as one would conclude by
examining the Stokes number, St. The Stokes number is
defined as the ratio between the particle response time, tp, and
a characteristic time scale of the flow, e.g. the Kolmogorov
time scale, tk (n/e)1/2, where e is the dissipation rate of
turbulent kinetic energy and n is the kinematic viscosity of air.
The pollen response time is typically estimated as the Stokes
time tp ffi (2rp(dA/2)2)/9ma, which is the time required for the
pollen to reach 63% of its terminal velocity in still air assuming
Stokes flow drag