Simulation of microstructure/mechanism relationships in particle deposition

Abstract

AbstractThe important connection between particulate deposit properties and deposition mechanism remains poorly understood and only scarcely studied. Accordingly, in this research, we develop a discrete stochastic model to simulate particulate deposition processes resulting from realistic combinations of deposition mechanisms. Particle motion is assumed to be determined by the superposition of a deterministic force that acts toward the collecting surface and a random force, which produces Brownian diffusion. We characterize the resulting deposit microstructure via porosity and pore size/area distribution, surface area; and we examine the evolution of these descriptors with time (number of particles deposited) for different deposition mechanisms. We also examine the effect of particle polydispersity, spatial orientation (for nonspherical particles), and mean‐free‐path on the resulting deposit structure.