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Terminal Settling Velocity of Cylindrical Rods with Various Geometries Applicable to Atmospheric Microplastics
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Researchers measured how the shape of cylindrical microplastic fibers affects their settling speed through air, finding that curved and V-shaped fibers fall significantly faster than straight ones — up to 57% faster for V-shaped rods — which matters for predicting how airborne microplastics disperse in the atmosphere.
In this research, a set of straight, curved, V-shaped, and U-shaped cylindrical rods are dropped in a chamber filled with a quiescent 90% glycerin mixture to approximate the settling of microplastic fibres in the atmosphere.The 3D fall trajectory and terminal velocity of the rods are determined using images captured from two cameras facing the two perpendicular sides of the chamber.The results show that the terminal velocities of the curved and V-shaped rods are both greater than that of the straight rods with the same diameter and aspect ratio, with a maximum difference of 17% and 57% relative to the straight rods for the curved and V-shaped rods respectively within the ranges studied in this research.U-shaped rods always exhibit a greater terminal velocity than straight rods with the same dimensions, with a maximum difference of 39% calculated in this research.As the aspect ratio of a U-shaped rod increases, the terminal velocity initially increases, reaches a peak value, and then decreases, reflecting the interplay between the length of the rod arms and the inclination angle.
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