Simulating orthokinetic heterocoagulation and cluster growth in destabilizing suspensions

Using direct numerical simulation, we investigate the coagulation behavior of non-Brownian colloidal particles as exemplified by Al2O3 particles. This yields the so-called capture efficiency, for which we give an analytical expression, as well as other time-dependent variables such as the cluster growth rate. Instead of neglecting or strongly approximating the hydrodynamic interactions between particles, we include hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic interactions in a Stokesian dynamics approach and a comprehensive modeling of the interparticle forces. The resulting parallelized simulation framework enables us to investigate the dynamics of polydisperse particle systems composed of several hundred particles at the same high level of modeling we used for a close investigation of the coagulation behavior of two unequal particles in shear flow. Appropriate cluster detection yields all the information about large destabilizing systems, which is needed for models used in flow-sheet simulations. After nondimensionalization, the results can be generalized and applied to other systems tending to secondary coagulation. (C) 2016 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.