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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Nucleation in supersonic nozzles

Conference ·
OSTI ID:166564
 [1];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
  2. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA (United States)
Supersonic nozzles do not yield nucleation rates directly because the length of time over which nucleation contributes significantly to particle formation is not easy to determine or control. Nonetheless, experiments in nozzles are extremely important because they provide higher rates of cooling, higher supersaturations, and higher nucleation rates than techniques such as shock tubes, expansion cloud chambers, or thermal diffusion cloud chambers. Their operating conditions are more characteristic of important industrial applications where homogeneous condensation can have serious consequences for the gas flow behavior. Because the fluid mechanics of nozzles is well understood, condensation experiments in the nozzle are amenable to sophisticated modeling efforts, and much useful insight can be gained regarding the nucleation and droplet growth processes under these severe cooling conditions. Recent modeling and experimental results for unary and binary nucleation in supersonic nozzles will be discussed.
OSTI ID:
166564
Report Number(s):
CONF-9510126--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English