Two-component Brownian coagulation: Monte Carlo simulation and process characterization

The compositional distribution within aggregates of a given size is essential to the functionality of composite aggregates that are usually enlarged by rapid Brownian coagulation.There is no analytical solution for the process of such two-component systems.Monte Carlo method is an effective numerical approach for two-component coagulation.In this paper,the differentially weighted Monte Carlo method is used to investigate two-component Brownian coagulation,respectively,in the continuum regime,the freemolecular regime and the transition regime.It is found that ( 1 ) for Brownian coagulation in the continuum regime and in the free-molecular regime,the mono-variate compositional distribution,i.e.,the number density distribution function of one component amount (in the form of volume of the component in aggregates) satisfies self-preserving form the same as particle size distribution in mono-component Brownian coagulation; (2) however,for Brownian coagulation in the transition regime the mono-variate compositional distribution cannot reach self-similarity; and (3) the bivariate compositional distribution,i.e.,the combined number density distribution function of two component amounts in the three regimes satisfies a semi self-preserving form.Moreover,other new features inherent to aggregative mixing are also demonstrated; e.g.,the degree of mixing between components,which is largely controlled by the initial compositional mass fraction,improves as aggregate size increases.