Ejection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study
Abstract Raindrops impacting water surfaces such as lakes or oceans produce myriads of tiny droplets which are ejected into the atmosphere at very high speeds. Here we combine computer simulations and experimental measurements to investigate whether these droplets can serve as transport vehicles for...
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2021
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oai:doaj.org-article:6c422fb1ad9c46a19830b3505d33b6fa2021-11-14T12:25:12ZEjection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study10.1186/s43591-021-00018-82662-4966https://doaj.org/article/6c422fb1ad9c46a19830b3505d33b6fa2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1186/s43591-021-00018-8https://doaj.org/toc/2662-4966Abstract Raindrops impacting water surfaces such as lakes or oceans produce myriads of tiny droplets which are ejected into the atmosphere at very high speeds. Here we combine computer simulations and experimental measurements to investigate whether these droplets can serve as transport vehicles for the transition of microplastic particles with diameters of a few tens of μm from ocean water to the atmosphere. Using the Volume-of-Fluid lattice Boltzmann method, extended by the immersed-boundary method, we performed more than 1600 raindrop impact simulations and provide a detailed statistical analysis on the ejected droplets. Using typical sizes and velocities of real-world raindrops – parameter ranges that are very challenging for 3D simulations – we simulate straight impacts with various raindrop diameters as well as oblique impacts. We find that a 4mm diameter raindrop impact on average ejects more than 167 droplets. We show that these droplets indeed contain microplastic concentrations similar to the ocean water within a few millimeters below the surface. To further assess the plausibility of our simulation results, we conduct a series of laboratory experiments, where we find that microplastic particles are indeed contained in the spray. Based on our results and known data – assuming an average microplastic particle concentration of 2.9 particles per liter at the ocean surface – we estimate that, during rainfall, about 4800 microplastic particles transition into the atmosphere per square kilometer per hour for a typical rain rate of 10 mm h $10 \frac {\text {mm}}{\mathrm {h}}$ and vertical updraft velocity of 0.5 m s $0.5 \frac {\mathrm {m}}{\mathrm {s}}$ .Moritz LehmannLisa Marie OehlschlägelFabian P. HäuslAndreas HeldStephan GekleSpringerOpenarticleMicroplasticsOceanAtmosphereTransportRaindropSea sprayEnvironmental pollutionTD172-193.5Polymers and polymer manufactureTP1080-1185ENMicroplastics and Nanoplastics, Vol 1, Iss 1, Pp 1-19 (2021) |
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DOAJ |
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DOAJ |
| language |
EN |
| topic |
Microplastics Ocean Atmosphere Transport Raindrop Sea spray Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Polymers and polymer manufacture TP1080-1185 |
| spellingShingle |
Microplastics Ocean Atmosphere Transport Raindrop Sea spray Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Polymers and polymer manufacture TP1080-1185 Moritz Lehmann Lisa Marie Oehlschlägel Fabian P. Häusl Andreas Held Stephan Gekle Ejection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study |
| description |
Abstract Raindrops impacting water surfaces such as lakes or oceans produce myriads of tiny droplets which are ejected into the atmosphere at very high speeds. Here we combine computer simulations and experimental measurements to investigate whether these droplets can serve as transport vehicles for the transition of microplastic particles with diameters of a few tens of μm from ocean water to the atmosphere. Using the Volume-of-Fluid lattice Boltzmann method, extended by the immersed-boundary method, we performed more than 1600 raindrop impact simulations and provide a detailed statistical analysis on the ejected droplets. Using typical sizes and velocities of real-world raindrops – parameter ranges that are very challenging for 3D simulations – we simulate straight impacts with various raindrop diameters as well as oblique impacts. We find that a 4mm diameter raindrop impact on average ejects more than 167 droplets. We show that these droplets indeed contain microplastic concentrations similar to the ocean water within a few millimeters below the surface. To further assess the plausibility of our simulation results, we conduct a series of laboratory experiments, where we find that microplastic particles are indeed contained in the spray. Based on our results and known data – assuming an average microplastic particle concentration of 2.9 particles per liter at the ocean surface – we estimate that, during rainfall, about 4800 microplastic particles transition into the atmosphere per square kilometer per hour for a typical rain rate of 10 mm h $10 \frac {\text {mm}}{\mathrm {h}}$ and vertical updraft velocity of 0.5 m s $0.5 \frac {\mathrm {m}}{\mathrm {s}}$ . |
| format |
article |
| author |
Moritz Lehmann Lisa Marie Oehlschlägel Fabian P. Häusl Andreas Held Stephan Gekle |
| author_facet |
Moritz Lehmann Lisa Marie Oehlschlägel Fabian P. Häusl Andreas Held Stephan Gekle |
| author_sort |
Moritz Lehmann |
| title |
Ejection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study |
| title_short |
Ejection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study |
| title_full |
Ejection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study |
| title_fullStr |
Ejection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Ejection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study |
| title_sort |
ejection of marine microplastics by raindrops: a computational and experimental study |
| publisher |
SpringerOpen |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
https://doaj.org/article/6c422fb1ad9c46a19830b3505d33b6fa |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT moritzlehmann ejectionofmarinemicroplasticsbyraindropsacomputationalandexperimentalstudy AT lisamarieoehlschlagel ejectionofmarinemicroplasticsbyraindropsacomputationalandexperimentalstudy AT fabianphausl ejectionofmarinemicroplasticsbyraindropsacomputationalandexperimentalstudy AT andreasheld ejectionofmarinemicroplasticsbyraindropsacomputationalandexperimentalstudy AT stephangekle ejectionofmarinemicroplasticsbyraindropsacomputationalandexperimentalstudy |
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1718429231540600832 |