Modelling the spread of particulate pollution in the ocean

by Julius Busse (UCD)

Monday 7 Sept 2026, 15:30 → 17:30 Europe/Stockholm

Albano Building 3

Stokes showed in 1847 that a fluid element in irrotational travelling waves experiences a net drift in the direction of the wave train. This drift is proportional to u²/c, where u is the fluid velocity at the free surface and c the wave speed. All particle suspended under travelling waves experience Stokes drift to some degree. We present wave-averaged asymptotics of particle motion under linear finite-depth waves. In the small Stokes number (St) and steepness (𝜀) regime, we find that particles move like fluid elements to leading order, with a correction to the Stokes drift at O(𝜀² St²) and enhanced settling at O(𝜀² St). We also present different wave-averaging approaches and discuss their applicability.

Zoom link: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/622224375