Microplastic River Interceptor Simulator

River Interceptor

Flow velocity 1.2 m/s

Particle size 80 µm

Mesh capture efficiency 0.6

Capture rate

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Intercepted

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Passed through

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Drag factor

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How it works

Microplastic fragments drift downstream on the river current toward a mesh interceptor screen anchored across the channel. Each particle's chance of capture combines two effects: the screen's own mesh efficiency (how much of its face area is solid fibre) and Stokes' drag on the particle itself. Smaller particles feel proportionally more drag from the water passing through the mesh, so they are pulled aside and trapped more readily than larger ones, which carry more inertia and tend to punch straight through.

Fd = 6·π·η·r·v
P(capture) = efficiency · clamp(1 − r/rMax, 0.15, 1)

Flow velocity — how fast the current carries particles toward the screen; faster flow gives the interceptor less time to act on each particle.
Particle size — sets the drag radius r in Stokes' law; smaller fragments are captured more consistently, larger ones more often slip through.
Mesh capture efficiency — the physical fineness of the filter screen; a finer mesh intercepts more of every size class but also raises backpressure in a real device.
Flow lines — toggle the visualised streamlines to see the current pushing particles toward the barrier.

Real-world relevance: floating and mid-depth river interceptors (trash wheels, boom-and-mesh barriers) use exactly this trade-off — a finer mesh captures more plastic but clogs faster and throttles flow, so operators tune mesh size to the dominant particle population at each site.

Drifting microplastic Intercepted (trapped) Passed through screen

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