Talk Abstract:
The ocean transports vast quantities of dispersed material such as sediment, plankton, microplastics, oil droplets, bubbles and more. At the ocean surface, gravity waves transport mass through a process referred to as Stokes drift. Finite-sized particles of arbitrary shape exhibit additional Stokes drift-like phenomena that can alter their transport. In this talk, I explore the effects of particle inertia and shape on particle behavior in waves. I demonstrate both an angular analogue of Stokes drift for non-spherical particles and a vertical Stokes drift for settling particles. Experimental observations are compared with these analytical results, and these behaviors are discussed in the context of microplastic transport in the ocean.