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Updated: May 7, 2026

Visually Based Characterization of the Incipient Particle Motion in Regular Substrates: From Laminar to Turbulent Conditions
Published on: February 22, 2018
Time persistence of floating-particle clusters in free-surface turbulence
Salvatore Lovecchio1, Cristian Marchioli, Alfredo Soldati
1Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Gestionale e Meccanica, Università degli Studi di Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy.
Abstract:
We study the dispersion of light particles floating on a flat shear-free surface of an open channel in which the flow is turbulent. This configuration mimics the motion of buoyant matter (e.g., phytoplankton, pollutants, or nutrients) in water bodies when surface waves and ripples are smooth or absent. We perform direct numerical simulation of turbulence coupled with Lagrangian particle tracking, considering different values of the shear Reynolds number (Re_{τ}=171 and 509) and of the Stokes number (0.06
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