Multi-component droplet growth. II. A theoretical model

Abstract

A droplet growth model is formulated that describes the growth of homogeneous multi-component droplets suspended in a dilute gas-vapor mixture. The droplet is suspended in a real carrier gas, in which the vapors are diluted. The model is applicable for all Knudsen numbers. It is shown that the model can easily be extended to describe the growth of layered droplets. The model calculations are compared to the results of droplet growth experiments of supersaturated water and/or supersaturated n-nonane in methane. The model performs well for all the cases, except for the case when supersaturated n-nonane vapor is added to supersaturated water vapor in methane gas. In the latter case it is proposed that the discrepancies originate from the incomplete wetting of n-nonane on liquid water at the given conditions.

Co-condensation of nonane and D2O in a supersonic nozzle

“…They attributed this difference to experimental uncertainty and concluded that the presence of the second vapor did not influence the nucleation of the first, and that co-nucleation did not occur. Multi-component droplet growth in this ternary system was later studied by Peeters et al 8,9 Here, the experiments showed that the presence of water vapor did not affect the growth rate of droplets formed when n-nonane controlled nucleation, while the presence of n-nonane greatly increased the growth rate of droplets when water controlled nucleation.…”