Numerical analysis of the influence of nonequilibrium plasma on the nucleation rate of supersaturated steam

Sen Li,Qinglin Cheng,Yang Liu,Xiaobing Wang,Bo Tang,Bin Bian,Hui Pu,Tingting Ma

doi:10.1063/1.5143917

Abstract

In this paper, a preliminary numerical method is established to simulate the effect of nonequilibrium plasma in water vapor on the nucleation rate of condensation. In this model, the plasma drift-diffusion model is employed to describe the water vapor plasma by considering a set of simplified reaction mechanisms. A heterogeneous condensation model describes the rate of water vapor nucleation on ions. The numerical simulation results show the formation and distribution of charged particles in nonequilibrium plasma and the effect of charged particles on the nucleation rate. The results also show that the nucleation rate increases rapidly with increasing supersaturation due to the presence of nonequilibrium plasma and is significantly higher with plasma than without plasma. The process of plasma-enhanced water vapor nucleation can be simulated quantitatively by this preliminary numerical method.

Highlights

Wilson first noticed the phenomenon of water vapor nucleation on ions in 1897.1 In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to charge-enhanced nucleation in fields such as aerosol formation, condensation heat transfer enhancement, and precipitation
The ion-induced nucleation (IIN) mechanism has been widely accepted as an efficient source of new particles in the middle and upper troposphere
Rieger et al.8 investigated the influence of electrostatic charges on the condensation of steam in the turbine of a power plant

Summary

Introduction

Wilson first noticed the phenomenon of water vapor nucleation on ions in 1897.1 In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to charge-enhanced nucleation in fields such as aerosol formation, condensation heat transfer enhancement, and precipitation.As early as 1959, Ney et al. speculated that aerosol particles formed via ions might grow to the size of cloud condensation nuclei and thereby influence clouds and climate. In the field of enhanced heat transfer, Reznikov et al. used wires or needle electrodes to generate glow discharge and measured changes in temperature, humidity, and the amount of condensate water. Their experiments on the effect of corona discharges confirmed a. Yang et al. tried to use corona discharge to induce steam condensation to achieve artificial precipitation. At present, it seems that the use of charge-enhanced nucleation in the above fields has excellent potential application value. A better understanding of processes related to charge-enhanced nucleation is of interest to both scientific theory and engineering practice

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Results

Conclusion