We compute the fractal dimension of clusters of inertial particles in mixing
flows at finite values of Kubo (Ku) and Stokes (St) numbers, by a new series
expansion in Ku. At small St, the theory includes clustering by Maxey's
non-ergodic 'centrifuge' effect. In the limit of St to infinity and Ku to zero
(so that Ku^2 St remains finite) it explains clustering in terms of ergodic
'multiplicative amplification'. In this limit, the theory is consistent with
the asymptotic perturbation series in [Duncan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95
(2005) 240602]. The new theory allows to analyse how the two clustering
mechanisms compete at finite values of St and Ku. For particles suspended in
two-dimensional random Gaussian incompressible flows, the theory yields
excellent results for Ku < 0.2 for arbitrary values of St; the ergodic
mechanism is found to contribute significantly unless St is very small. For
higher values of Ku the new series is likely to require resummation. But
numerical simulations show that for Ku ~ St ~ 1 too, ergodic 'multiplicative
amplification' makes a substantial contribution to the observed clustering.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure