Oscillatory regimes of vapor condensation

Abstract

The problem of the condensation of supersaturated vapor in an open system at a constant rate of production of a monomer and a continuous flow of a carrier gas that removes the products of condensation from the system is considered. It is shown both analytically and by numerical experiment that with a decreasing rate of the carrier gas to below a critical magnitude, the condensation regime becomes oscillatory; namely, time oscillations of the cluster-size distribution in the vapor to be condensed are set in. The cause of the phenomenon is in the suppression of the rate of nucleation and the presence of large clusters.