The Effects of Differential Diffusion on Nanoparticle Coagulation in Temporal Mixing Layers

Abstract

The effects of size-independent diffusive transport on nanoparticle growth is studied by performing direct numerical simulation of nanoparticle coagulation in temporal mixing layers. The flow field is obtained by solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, while the evolution of the particle field is obtained by using a nodal approach to approximate the aerosol general dynamic equation. Simulations are performed where particles diffuse according to their size and also where all particles have the same diffusivity. For the latter, the model assumes that all particles of different sizes have the same diffusivity as the smallest particles. The advantage of the second approach is the length scales that need to be resolved are larger, facilitating more affordable computations. Simulations are performed at two volume fractions to assess the effects of the models under different growth rates. The results indicate the use of size-independent diffusion coefficients predicts particle sizes and geometric standard deviations that are larger than those obtained with size-dependent diffusion coefficients.