New discretization procedure for the agglomeration equation

A new discretization procedure for the agglomeration equation is presented. The intrinsic problems caused by discretization of the particle-size distribution are mitigated by using proper probability functions. Thus, the new discretized equation predicts the same total number of particles as its continuous counterpart and guarantees conservation of mass. This general method can correctly predict any two properties simultaneously and is not limited to number and mass. Simulation results with various agglomeration kernels show that the new method provides significant improvements over the conventional discretization method. Furthermore, the new method allows the user to choose equal-size intervals or geometric-size intervals with any geometric ratio to cover the particle-size range. In addition to flexibility the latter feature lends to better accuracy in particle-size distribution predictions.