Settling alteration of anisotropic particles in turbulent flows – Anisett

Microplastics are increasingly prevalent pollutants in marine and freshwater ecosystems, with their transport mechanisms in natural water bodies still not fully understood. Geophysical models use empirical laws to simulate plastic particle transport, with a key focus on settling velocity, which can be either enhanced or hindered depending on the interaction between particles and turbulent flow. For spherical particles, the full parameter space involves five intertwined dimensions. With anisotropic particles, it is even higher. This project aims at addressing in a comprehensive manner the settling of inertial particles in turbulent flows by gathering several scientific teams with expertise in different areas of particle-laden turbulence. The consortium involves three experimental facilities and three CFD codes that are complementary as they cover different phenomena pertinent for microplastics dynamics (density rations, finite size, shear in the carrier phase, etc...). This project will go beyond the canonical, even if still not completely understood, situation of heavy spherical particles settling in HIT. By considering either not so heavy or non spherical particles or anisotropic turbulence.