A Computational Fluid Dynamics Approach to Nucleation in the Water-Sulfuric Acid System

This study presents a computational fluid dynamics modeling approach to investigate the nucleation in the water sulfuric acid system in a flow tube. On the basis of an existing experimental setup (Brus, D.; Hyvarinen, A.-P.; Viisanen, Y.; Kulmala, M.; Lihavainen, H. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2010, 10,2631-2641), we first establish the effect of convection on the flow profile. We then proceed to simulate nucleation for relative humidities of 10, 30, and 50% and for sulfuric acid concentration between 10(9) to 3 x 10(10) cm(-3). We describe the nucleation zone in detail and determine how flow rate and relative humidity affect its characteristics. Experimental nucleation rates are compared to rates gained from classical binary and kinetic nucleation theory as well as cluster activation theory. For low RH values, kinetic theory yields the best agreement with experimental results while binary nucleation best reproduces the experimental nucleation behavior at 50% relative humidity. Particle growth is modeled for an example case at 50% relative humidity. The final simulated diameter is very close to the experimental result.