Figure 2.

Settling dynamics of disks with different aspect ratios χ = 7 (a,b,e), and χ = 60 (c,d,f) for Set1E1% experiment (see Supplementary Table 1 for details). (a,b) variation of non-dimensional settling velocity with depth, z—vertical coordinate, z₀—location of upper boundary of transition layer, d—disk diameter, u—instantaneous settling velocity, U_ul—terminal settling velocity in the upper layer, N—buoyancy frequency variable with depth, R1, R2, R3, R4—location of reorientations; (b,d) variation of Froude number with depth; u_min1, u_min2 and u_max refer to characteristic velocities. (e,f) variation of settling velocity with buoyancy frequency, an arrow indicates data order from the beginning to the end of settling, N_max—maximum buoyancy frequency.