Volumetric reconstruction of settling mud flocs: a new insight of equilibrium flocculation in saline water

Mud flocculation and settling play key role in understanding sediment transport cycle and affect water quality in estuarine and coastal seas. However, the morphological irregularity and structural instability of fragile mud aggregates set huge obstacles for quantifying geometric property accurately and establishing reliable predicting tools in settling dynamics via previous observing strategies based on instant measured and 2-dimensional imagery floc parameterizations. Here we designed a multi-camera apparatus targeting capturing multiple sides/angles of individual flocs, and developed a multi-view segmentation algorithm on floc images analysis. We finally accomplished batch of 3-dimensional reconstruction obtaining each settling floc's volumetric size in equilibrium flocculation. The results indicate a stable bimodal floc size distribution in equilibrium flocculation with a dominant peak of microflocs (<200 μm) and a secondary smaller peak of macroflocs (> 200μm). The flocculi (<50 μm) shows more spherical outlines with dense structure while the larger-sized macroflocs (>200 μm) have high irregular morphologies with high porosity and visible biological debris attaching, and the microflocs (50-200 μm) tend to be irregular in shape and dense inside. The terminal settling velocity of mud flocs shows increasing with floc size in <200 μm but keeps stable around 1-2 mm·s−1 after >200 μm due to the increase in size being compensated by the decrease of density according to the fractal theory on floc geometry. The higher organic matter content within larger porous flocs reduces the macroflocs effective density. These lead to a very high volumetric settling flux but low mass settling flux of macroflocs in natural water systems. This work provides new insight to reveal more accurate mud aggregates geometric parameterizations in volumetric aspect and reliable characterizations of equilibrium flocculation using a fast and sound batch of direct measuring approach. This may importantly improve the predictions of suspended mud dynamics and water system management in nature.