Calculation of Concentration Distribution of Steady Flow Aerosol by Langevin Dynamics Method

Abstract

Langevin dynamics (LD) method is a modelling technique using pseudo-random numbers to reproduce the acceleration of aerosol particles due to random collisions of gas molecules onto the particles. Although the LD method can reproduce the Brownian motion of particles and motion due to inertial force and/or external force, it is difficult to understand the behavior of aerosol, which is group of particles, from the information on the motion of individual particles. In this study, a novel calculation method was developed to obtain the concentration distribution of aerosol by accumulating the information of position of particles calculated by the LD method, and it was applied to the diffusion of aerosol flowing steadily in a cylindrical tube. The concentration distribution obtained by this method agreed well with that obtained by solving the conventional convective-diffusion equation. Furthermore, change in cup-mixing concentration of aerosol in axial direction calculated from the concentration distribution agreed well also with the penetration expressed by Gormley & Kennedy.