Simulation of Particle Dynamics

A challenging aspect in aerosol processes is the numerical modeling of particle dynamics involving a series of concurrent pathways such as gas phase chemical reactions, surface growth, coagulation and sintering, typically encountered during synthesis of nanoparticles in aerosol flame reactors. The Population Balance equation describing the above mechanisms is an integro-differential equation lacking (in the general case) analytical solution. Here efficient monodisperse and moving sectional quantitative tools are developed to explore the significance of various particle formation routes during flame synthesis by comparing detailed measured and calculated size distributions (Tsantilis and Pratsinis, 2000; Tsantilis et al., 2002; Spicer et al., 2001). For the efficient description of particle formation and growth in complicated flow patterns, in-house particle dynamics software can be implemented in conjunction with (commercial) codes for Computational Fluid Dynamics (Tsantilis et al., 1999; Johannessen et al., 2001; Wegner et al., 2002).

Potential sponsors of the above research topics involve the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (KTI-CTI), as well as the Swiss National Foundation (SNF).

Recent, relevant references:

1. Johannessen, T., Pratsinis, S. E., and Livbjerg, H. (2000) Computational Fluid-Particle Dynamics for the Flame Synthesis of Alumina Particles. Chemical Eng. Sci., 55, 177-191.
2. Spicer, P. T., Chaoul, O., Tsantilis, S. and Pratsinis, S. E. (2001) Titania Formation by TiCl4 Gas Phase Oxidation, Surface Growth and Coagulation. J. Aerosol Sci., 33, 17-34.
3. Tsantilis, S., Pratsinis, S. E. and Haas, V. (1999) Simulation of Synthesis of Palladium Nanoparticles in a Jet Aerosol Flow Condenser. J. Aerosol Sci., 30, 785-803.
4. Tsantilis, S. and Pratsinis, S. E. (2000) Evolution of Primary and Aggregate Particle-Size Distributions by Coagulation and Sintering. AIChE J., 46, 407-415.
5. Tsantilis, S., Kammler, H. K. and Pratsinis, S. E. (2002) Population Balance Modeling of Flame Synthesis of Titania Nanoparticles. Chemical Eng. Sci., 57, 2139-2156.
6. Wegner, K., Walker, B., Tsantilis, S., and Pratsinis, S. E. (2002) Design of Metal Nanoparticle Synthesis by Vapor Flow Condensation. Chem. Eng. Sci., 57, 1753-1762.