Effects of fine scale turbulent flow and mixing in agglomerative precipitation

Precipitation of a solid product from aqueous ionic solutions, including mixing, fast chemical reaction, nucleation, growth and agglomeration of crystals is considered. This work concentrates on the phenomenon of particle agglomeration which dominates the precipitation process at high supersaturation. Modeling of particle collision includes effects of bulk fluid motion, Brownian diffusion and colloidal forces for particles of equal and unequal size. The concept of probability of agglomeration based on multifractal formalism is introduced and applied. A simplified version of the model is linked to CFD and results of computations are compared with experimental data for barium sulfate precipitation.