Dynamics of non-spherical particles in vortices : Accumulation of plastics in the ocean

Abstract: Today the plastic waste has made itself a permanent part of our marine environment, and have presented itself as a many faced problem. Becauseof this it is of grave importance to focus research on understanding thedynamics and accumulation of these plastic particles in various flows. The focus in this report was to understand and account for the various equations and theories that applies for the plastic particles, and to understand the accumulation of the particles. The particles properties, kinematicsand dynamics was defined, and a 2D Taylor-Green flow was used for the simulations because of its similar characteristics to those flows that can be found in the oceans. With Matlab the position, orientation, velocity and accumulation of the particles could be simulated. The results from the simulations where analysed and showed that for weaker vortex the particles get trapped in the vortices. For the stronger vortices the particles instead moved to regions of downward velocity, this behaviour was confirmed in Niazi Ardekani et al. 2017.