The process of agglomeration of powder particles has been simulated on a digital computer by using a two dimensional model based on the geometrical model of floc formation proposed by Sutherland. The concept of coagulation probability upon collision between particles and the factor of time-course of floc formation were newly introduced to obtain a number of floc having various size distributions.
At the beginning 100 discs of equal size numbered from 1 to 100 were arranged as the unit particles. Two discs were chosen randomly and collided each other. Whether the collided discs coagulated or not was determined by comparing the pseudo-random number generated at every collision with the coagulation probability P; P=2/(Dsn+1) where Ds is the size of a smaller colliding particle and n is a constant. The resulting agglomerate was replaced to one of the two colliding particles and, therefore, the total number of particles remained 100 throughout the computation. The stirring time in the coagulation process was described by the number of collision, i.e., the number of the generation of pseudo-random number.
The average floc size increased with time until an equilibrium state was reached, and the process obeyed the first-order kinetics.
