Monte Carlo Simulations of Colloidal Particle Coagulation and Breakup under Turbulent Shear

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Both a Monte Carlo model and an algorithm were presented to simulate the particle coagulation and breakup phenomena taking place in a colloidal solution under turbulent fluid shear. The model is represented by the probability density functions that describe the stochastic coagulation and breakup phenomena taking place among numerous particles. From a dimensional analysis of the model two dimensionless groups, k_c and k_b were derived that represent the relative intensity of the coagulation and breakup phenomena. In order to overcome the memory problem in saving the sizes of a large number of particles, the model was converted to a form suitable for carrying out a sectional mass balance. Detailed simulation steps were presented and applied to acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) latex coagulation. Numerical simulations revealed that the steady state particle size distribution does not depend on the initial distributions but on the k_c/k_b ratio. Setting the operation variables to increase the ratio was found to shift the particle size distribution toward larger particles.