Capillary Interception of Floating Particles by Surface-Piercing Vegetation
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Author(s)
Peruzzo, Paolo
Defina, Andrea
Stocker, Roman
Nepf, Heidi
Date Issued
October 2013
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Peruzzo, Paolo, Andrea Defina, Heidi M. Nepf, and Roman Stocker. “Capillary Interception of Floating Particles by Surface-Piercing Vegetation.” Physical Review Letters 111, no. 16 (October 2013). © 2013 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Surface-piercing vegetation often captures particles that flow on the water surface, where surface tension forces contribute to capture. Yet the physics of capillary capture in flow has not been addressed. Here we model the capture of floating particles by surface-piercing collectors at moderately low Reynolds numbers (Re < 10). We find a trade-off between the capillary force, which increases with the collector diameter, and the relative size of the meniscus, which decreases with the collector diameter, resulting in an optimal collector diameter of ~1 − 10 mm that corresponds to the regime in which many aquatic plant species operate. For this diameter range the angular distribution of capture events is nearly uniform and capture can be orders of magnitude more efficient than direct interception, showing that capillary forces can be major contributors to the capture of seeds and particulate matter by organisms.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.164501
