Polydisperse aerosol condensation with heat and mass conservation II: Fluid dynamic couplings for an embedded aerosol zone

Abstract

Aerosol condensational growth in a fluid field, including water vapor depletion and latent heat of condensation, is studied by a newly developed model coupling aerosol condensation with fluid dynamics. This model couples the fluid dynamics (via ANSYS FLUENT) and a time-dependent model [1] developed for nonsteady state, nonisothermal conditions. Mass and heat are effectively conserved throughout the computational domain with changes driven by aerosol condensation and evaporation. In turn, these changes promote fluid movement and its evolution. Communications between the air parcel, inside which the aerosol particles are introduced, and the outside environment are allowed by means of mass and heat transfer. Comparison between results of models with and without computational fluid dynamics (CFD) shows that the fluid movement due to aerosol condensation can have significant impact on the aerosol growth. By comparing the growth of both monodisperse and polydisperse (NH4)2SO4 particles of different number densities at various initial supersaturation conditions, particle number concentrations are shown to have great impact on the aerosol condensational growth with mass and heat exchange between the inside and outside of the air parcel.