Effect of Surface Waves on Settling and Drifting of Microplastic Particles: A Laboratory Experiment

Particle trajectories and average settling and drift velocities of microplastic particles under wave action were studied in a linear wind-wave channel. A wave-maker and an airflow above the water surface created various hydrodynamic conditions. Particles of various shapes (isometric, flat, elongated) were used. The paper provides a brief overview of the theoretical approaches (dimensional analysis) used to study the transport of microplastics in the presence of surface waves and currents. Based on this, a characteristic of wave regimes and sets of experimental particles is given. Terminal settling velocities of the particles in a quiet fluid are 1.0–3.8 cm/s. They were obtained experimentally and may be of independent interest. The settling trajectories of 13 types of particles in 4 wave regimes were obtained and analyzed. According to Welch’s t-criterion (p < 0.05), the average particle settling rate in the presence of waves differs slightly from the terminal settling velocity, which is consistent with other works. The results indicate that the average horizontal (drift) velocity follows the velocity of the mean current. The presence of wind enhances horizontal transport due to the induction of drift current and drastically increases particle dispersion.