In various industrial and real-life scenarios, sedimentation, whether involving flexible fibres, permeable structures, or a combination of both, plays a pivotal role. Its impact spans from influencing paper properties to waste water treatment and microorganism transport dynamics. Understanding sedimentation is crucial for optimizing processes like flocculation, organic matter removal, and particulate material management. Settling velocity, a key metric, is vital in designing instruments and formulating optimization strategies across environmental engineering and sediment transport. Despite extensive research on settling velocity correlations with viscosity, structure density, and permeability, the relationship with structural flexibility remains unexplored. This study employs the Immersed
Boundary (IB) method, utilizing a MATLAB code to numerically investigate the correlation between settling velocity and the flexibility of settling structures, addressing a gap in prior research. The results demonstrate a robust correlation between settling velocity and flexibility, supported by high R-squared values (ranging from 0.9979 to 1) for exponential fits across all discussed cases. The
R-squared value, a statistical measure assessing model accuracy, reinforces the superiority of the exponential fit in describing the settling velocity-flexibility relationship. To confirm the optimal fit, we conducted fitting attempts with various curve types using MATLAB, encompassing polynomial, Fourier, and smooth spline curves for both impermeable and permeable structures. The exponential
curve consistently emerged as the most fitting model in this context.In our recent research, we conducted a sensitivity analysis focusing on the time-step to validate the robustness of our findings. The investigation encompassed both impermeable and permeable scenarios for the structures under study. The time-step was systematically varied across a specified range, revealing a notable outcome: the results demonstrated a consistent independence from the chosen time-step values.