Aerosol Deposition, Growth, and Dynamics in the Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

Citation

Crump, James Gleason, III (1983) Aerosol Deposition, Growth, and Dynamics in the Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/yd9e-2s32. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-09122006-145635

Abstract

This work examines three related topics in aerosol science. First, a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) for studying the dynamics of chemically reacting aerosol systems is described. This apparatus is designed to allow aerosols to react under conditions of controlled temperature and relative humidity and is applied to the study of growth of aqueous manganese sulfate aerosols in a humid atmosphere containing sulfur dioxide. From experimental data the rate of conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid in manganese sulfate aerosols is deduced.

Second, a new algorithm for inversion of aerosol size distribution data is presented. This algorithm is well suited to the ill-posed nature of the data inversion problem and is shown to give results superior to those obtained using conventional methods. This inversion technique is applied to the analysis of aerosol growth data.

Finally, the general steady state coagulation equations with particle sources and sinks are examined and shown to admit physically unrealistic solutions in some cases. General conditions are then given which insure the existence of physically acceptable solutions and these solutions are shown to have large particle tails that decay exponentially.

Thesis Files