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Settling velocity of microplastic particles having regular and irregular shapes
Environmental Research2023
86 citations
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Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Score: 55
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0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Nils B. Kerpen,
David R. Fuhrman
Koray Deniz Göral,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Torsten Schlurmann,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Stefan Carstensen,
Torsten Schlurmann,
Torsten Schlurmann,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Stefan Carstensen,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Stefan Carstensen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Stefan Carstensen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Hasan Gökhan Güler,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Koray Deniz Göral,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Bjarke Eltard Larsen,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Torsten Schlurmann,
Torsten Schlurmann,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Stefan Carstensen,
Torsten Schlurmann,
Erik Damgaard Christensen,
Nils B. Kerpen,
Torsten Schlurmann,
Torsten Schlurmann,
Torsten Schlurmann,
David R. Fuhrman
David R. Fuhrman
David R. Fuhrman
David R. Fuhrman
David R. Fuhrman
David R. Fuhrman
David R. Fuhrman
David R. Fuhrman
David R. Fuhrman
Summary
Researchers measured how quickly microplastic particles of various shapes settle through water, testing 66 different particle types including spheres, cylinders, fibers, and irregular fragments. They found that particle shape significantly affects settling speed, with fibers and flat shapes sinking more slowly than spheres of the same size. The study provides new equations for predicting where microplastics end up in oceans and waterways based on their shape.
The settling velocities of 66 microplastic particle groups, having both regular (58) and irregular (eight) shapes, are measured experimentally. Regular shapes considered include: spheres, cylinders, disks, square plates, cubes, other cuboids (square and rectangular prisms), tetrahedrons, and fibers. The experiments generally consider Reynolds numbers greater than 10, extending the predominant range covered by previous studies. The present data is combined with an extensive data set from the literature, and the settling velocities are systematically analyzed on a shape-by-shape basis. Novel parameterizations and predictive drag coefficient formulations are developed for both regular and irregular particle shapes, properly accounting for preferential settling orientation. These are shown to be more accurate than the best existing predictive formulation from the literature. The developed method for predicting the settling velocity of irregularly-shaped microplastic particles is demonstrated to be equally well suited for natural sediments in the Appendix.