FIZIKA B 7 (1998) 2, 65-72

size 99 kBzip size 96 kB

FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF SUSPENDED PARTICLES IN SEAWATER

MLADEN MARTINISa and DUBRAVKO RISOVIĆ

Department of Physics, Ruđer Bošković Institute, P.O.B. 1016, HR-10001 Zagreb, CROATIA
ae-mail: martinis@thphys.irb.hr
Received 27 October 1997;revised manuscript received 30 March 1998; Accepted 13 July 1998

Light-scattering data of suspended clusters of particles in seawater have been analysed to find some evidence for fractal structure of the scatterers. The behaviour of the scattering intensity I(q) as a function of q suggests that the scattering medium consists of two kinds of particles, large ones, with fractal dimension 1.7 ±0.1, resulting from a regular DLCA growing process, and smaller ones, with a considerably larger fractal dimension 2.7 ±0.4, resulting from a more complex cluster-cluster aggregation process in which low sticking probabilities, restructuring and settling could be present. This conclusion is strongly supported by the I(q) curve which, in a log-log plot, exhibits two well defined linear regions. In interpreting data, it is assumed that the polydispersity of the scatterers is described by a smooth two-component particle-size distribution. The fractal structure of the scatterers is described by the behaviour of the scattering intensity from clusters of different size.

PACS numbers: 47.53.+n, 64.60.Cn, 68.70.+w, 92.10.Bf
UDC 531.741, 532.582.7

 

 

Copyright by The Croatian Physical Society
For problems or questions please contact fizika@fizika.hfd.hr