Lagrangian Model Study of Plankton Organisms in Turbulence

摘要

The focus of this work is examination of the preferential concentration of marineparticles. Application of Kolmogorov scaling indicates that effects of preferential concentration may be important for marine particles with diameters of order 1 mm in the upper mixed layer. Numerical simulations of unstratified isotropic turbulence are then used to support the notion that preferential concentration of particles possessing material characteristics representative of those encountered in marine environments can occur. In the simulations, particles of order 1 mm diameter are idealized as rigid spheres with a density ratio of 1.0005. Simulation results demonstrated preferential concentration with peak particle number densities ranging from 10 to 60 times the global mean value. Implications of preferential concentration are also discussed, together with the limitations of of the approach employed in the present study.