Fibre persistence on submerged substrates: The effect of flow rate over extended submersion periods

Through both casework and research, fibres have been found to have the particularly useful ability to persist and remain exploitable after submersion. However, direct analysis of the persistence ability remains in early stages, and in particular, submersion times above a day have not been thoroughly studied. This study aims to both extend understanding of the impact of flow rate and submersion periods of up to 28 days. A blended polyester/cotton green fabric was abraded to increase transfer and then dragged over a black cotton substrate. Six replicates of these substrates were then submerged in artificial flow cells at various flow rates for 28 days. These were illuminated under UV light and photographed prior to submersion, at set times during submersion and after submersion. Another set of six replicates were imaged, submerged into a river and then recovered and re-imaged after 28 days. The population of fibres was then counted using these photographs, and a mix of one-way and two-way ANOVA tests were applied, in combination with Tukey’s HSD, to detect significant differences across time and flow rate categories. Loss predominantly occurred on within the first 24 hours, in agreement with previous work. However, distinct from previous work there was a slow, approximately logarithmic loss over the balance of the submersion period. While significant differences were found between flow categories, there was no clear relationship between flow rate and persistence. The behaviour of the river samples was well-predicted by laboratory samples. 100 % fibre loss was never observed, with the maximum instead being 95.45 %. These results extend the understanding of fibre persistence on submerged substrates beyond the short submersion times in previous literature, and provide some deeper understanding of the impact of flow rate.