Advection–diffusion settling of deep-sea mining sediment plumes. Part 2. Collector plumes
Name
advection-diffusion-settling-of-deep-sea-mining-sediment-plumes-part-2-collector-plumes.pdf
Size
652.74 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
128d55549e98d5da0c03d8f9b2032286
Author(s)
Ouillon, Raphael
Muñoz-Royo, Carlos
Alford, Matthew H.
Peacock, Thomas
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Flow
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Citation
Ouillon R, Muñoz-Royo C, Alford MH, Peacock T. Advection–diffusion settling of deep-sea mining sediment plumes. Part 2. Collector plumes. Flow. 2022;2:E23.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We develop and investigate an advection–diffusion-settling model of deep-sea mining collector plumes, building on the analysis of midwater plumes in Part 1. In the case of collector plumes, deposition plays a predominant role in controlling the mass of sediment in suspension, and thus on setting the extent of the plume. We first discuss the competition between settling, which leads to deposition, and vertical turbulent diffusion, which stretches the plume vertically and reduces deposition. The time evolution of the concentration at the seabed is found to be a highly nonlinear function of time that depends non-trivially on the ratio of diffusion to settling time scales. This has direct implications for the three extent metrics considered, namely the instantaneous area of the seabed where a deposition rate threshold is exceeded, the furthest distance from the discharge where the plume exceeds a concentration threshold and the volume flux of fluid in the water column that ever exceeds a concentration threshold. Unlike the midwater plume, the particle velocity distribution of the sediment has the greatest influence on the extent metrics. The turbulence levels experienced by the plume also markedly affects its extent. Expected variability of turbulence and particle settling velocity yields orders of magnitude changes in the extent metrics.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1017/flo.2022.19
