Breakup of small tracer-like aggregates is studied by means of numerical simulations in four different flows, namely homogeneous isotropic turbulence, smooth stochastic flow, turbulent channel flow, and developing boundary layer flow. Aggregate breakup occurs when the local hydrodynamic stress σ ∼ ε1/2, where ε is the local energy dissipation, overcomes a given threshold value σcr [or equivalently εcr ∼ σcr2 ] characteristic for a given type of aggregates. Following the aggregate trajectory upon release and detecting the first occurrence of local energy dissipation exceeding the predefined threshold allows for estimating the breakup rate as a function of εcr. Results show that the breakup rate decreases with increasing threshold. For small values of the threshold, this decrease assumes consistent scaling among the different flows which is explained by universal small scale flow properties.
