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A Laboratory Dataset on Transport and Deposition of Spherical and Cylindrical Large Microplastics for Validation of Numerical Models
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This paper presents a laboratory dataset on the transport and deposition of spherical microplastic particles under controlled flow conditions, providing empirical data on how particle size and flow velocity influence settling and lateral dispersion. The dataset is intended to support calibration of microplastic transport models.
The widespread presence of micro-sized plastic pollution has raised concerns due to their unique physical and toxic properties. Each year, water bodies carry millions of tons of plastic into the ocean. The inherent characteristics (such as size, shape, and density) of microplastics (MPs), along with flow factors like speed, depth, and pressure, significantly influence how MPs are transported and deposited. Therefore, this research aimed to gather experimental data on the transport and deposition of MPs to serve as a benchmark for numerical modeling. To achieve this goal, various test scenarios were set up in a straight channel flume to investigate different flow velocities, channel dimensions, and particle shapes. It was observed that cylindrical particles with the same density and similar size were more likely to become trapped compared to spherical particles. This study represents progress towards validating numerical models concerning the transport and deposition of microplastics.
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