Eur. Phys. J. E 7, 153-161 (2002)
DOI: 10.1140/epje/i200101167
Coupled aggregation and sedimentation processes: Three-dimensional off-lattice simulations
R. Leone1, G. Odriozola1, L. Mussio1, A. Schmitt2 and R. Hidalgo-Álvarez21 Departamento de Química Física y Matemática, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la República, 11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
2 Departamento de Física Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva, E-18071 Granada, Spain
rhidalgo@ugr.es
(Received 7 November 2001 )
Abstract
Coupled aggregation and sedimentation processes were
studied by means of three-dimensional computer simulations. For
this purpose, a large prism with no periodic boundary conditions
for the sedimentation direction was considered. Furthermore, three
equally sized and mutually excluded regions were defined inside
the prism, a top, a middle and a bottom region. This allows to
study the time evolution of the cluster size distribution and the
cluster structure separately for each region. The mass
distribution profile and the center-of-mass position were also
accessed as a function of time. For the bottom region, the effects
of the sediment formation on the kinetics of growth and on the
cluster structure were clearly observed. The obtained results not
only agree with the experimental data obtained by Allain
et al. (C. Allain, M. Cloitre, M. Wafra, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74,
1478 (1995)) and with the simulations made by Gonzalez
(A.E. Gonzalez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 1243 (2001)),
but also allow to gain further insight into the details.
82.70.Dd - Colloids.
82.20.-w - Chemical kinetics and dynamics.
02.50.-r - Probability theory, stochastic processes and statistics.
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2002
