Pollutants dispersion in pure water and stratified layers

Abstract

We investigate how pollutants disperse in freshwater and seawater. As pollutants, silicone oil and ethanol are chosen as the immiscible and miscible fluid, respectively, which are less dense than the ambient fluid. For the ambient fluid, in particular, to mimic the seawater condition, we prepared a stratified layer consisting of several different densities based on the de-ionized (DI) water along the vertical direction. DI water is used for freshwater. We observed that while the fully miscible fluid, ethanol, rises upward due to the buoyancy effect and injection flow rate, it dissolves into the freshwater. However, the ethanol is captured in the stratified layers and it creates a different structure as shown in the poster. For the oil experiment in the stratified layers, the oil liquid stream is broken into the small droplets that are captured in the stratified layers as well.​