AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
The Effects of Heat Release During Nanoparticle Nucleation
JUN LIU, Sean Garrick, University of Minnesota
Abstract Number: 329 Working Group: Aerosol Physics
Abstract In this work we study the effects of heat release during the homogeneous nucleation of metal nanoparticles. We perform direct numerical simulation of zinc nucleation in laminar and turbulent jets. The flows consist of hot metal vapor issuing into cooler inert gas. As the hot metal vapor is transported and mixes with the cooler background gas, particles nucleate. Nucleation is an exothermic process and the energy released has the effect of increasing the local temperature. As nucleation rate and critical diameter are highly sensitive to temperature, the nucleation—heat-release interaction is coupled one. As energy is released, the temperature increases and the rate of particle nucleation decreases. However, the energy release also has effects on fluid, mass, and thermal transport. We examine this complex dynamic in both laminar and turbulent flows using a high-order accurate numerical scheme to obtain the fully resolved, unsteady evolution of the fluid, thermal, scalar, and particle fields.