Monte carlo simulation for simultaneous particle coagulation and deposition

Abstract

The process of dynamic evolution in dispersed systems due to simultaneous particle coagulation and deposition is described mathematically by general dynamic equation (GDE). Monte Carlo (MC) method is an important approach of numerical solutions of GDE. However, constant-volume MC method exhibits the contradictory of low computation cost and high computation precision owing to the fluctuation of the number of simulation particles; constant-number MC method can hardly be applied to engineering application and general scientific quantitative analysis due to the continual contraction or expansion of computation domain. In addition, the two MC methods depend closely on the “subsystem” hypothesis, which constraints their expansibility and the scope of application. A new multi-Monte Carlo (MMC) method is promoted to take account of GDE for simultaneous particle coagulation and deposition. MMC method introduces the concept of “weighted fictitious particle” and is based on the “time-driven” technique. Furthermore MMC method maintains synchronously the computational domain and the total number of fictitious particles, which results in the latent expansibility of simulation for boundary condition, the space evolution of particle size distribution and even particle dynamics. The simulation results of MMC method for two special cases in which analytical solutions exist agree with analytical solutions well, which proves that MMC method has high and stable computational precision and low computation cost because of the constant and limited number of fictitious particles. Lastly the source of numerical error and the relative error of MMC method are analyzed, respectively.