A method of moments based CFD model for polydisperse aerosol flows with strong interphase mass and heat transfer

A Computational Fluid Dynamics method is introduced to study the nucleation, coagulation, evaporation and condensation of poly-disperse particles in multi-dimensional multi-species laminar and turbulent flows with strong mass and energy coupling between the phases. The model is based on the Reduced Navier-Stokes (RNS) methodology and incorporates a lognormal aerosol moment method to describe the evolution of suspended particulates. The model is validated against available analytic and numerical techniques for one and two-dimensional geometries. The sensitivity of both the bulk flow and aerosol particle properties to boundary layer effects, even in high Reynolds number flows, is demonstrated for transonic two-phase flow in wet steam de Laval nozzles. It is shown that the developed model and method are useful for the prediction of particle properties such as mass and number concentrations, geometric mean particle size and standard deviation of the particle size distribution in multi-dimensional turbulent compressible aerosol flows with strong heat and mass transfer. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.