Simulation of acoustic agglomeration processes using a sectional algorithm

The two primarily noted mechanisms for promoting aerosol agglomeration in acoustic systems are added to a sectional algorithm (MAEROS) for aerosol dynamics. Rigorous comparisons of the relative validity of these mechanisms in predicting experimental results do not exist in the literature. In this work, a comprehensive tabulation of experimental data is provided. These data are discussed from the perspective of the modeling complexity required to evaluate the basic acoustic agglomeration mechanisms. Then, for a selected subset of the experimental results, detailed comparisons are made between the experimental and computational results. The computational results indicate that the individual basic mechanism proposed for acoustic agglomeration may appear to work for some limited ranges of experimental investigations, but are still quite far from being considered robust. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.