  The influence of clustering on the collision rate of inertial particles in a
smooth random velocity field, mimicking the smaller scales of a turbulent flow,
is analyzed. For small values of the the ratio between the relaxation time of
the particle velocity and the characteristic time of the field, the effect of
clusters is to make more energetic collisions less likely. The result is
independent of the flow dimensionality and is due only to the origin of
collisions in the process of caustic formation.
