Development of a molecular dynamics-based coalescence model for DSMC simulations of ammonia condensate flows

Abstract

A coalescence model for homogeneous condensation of ammonia in supersonic expansions to vacuum has been developed using molecular dynamics trajectory calculations. The MD calculations show that the sticking probability increases as the ammonia cluster size increases or the cluster temperature decreases. In addition, the sensitivity of the sticking probability to cluster size decreases as the temperature decreases. Comparison of the Ashgriz–Poo semiempirical coalescence model with MD simulations show that for cluster sizes larger than 100 the former model may be used. To model homogeneous nucleation in an ammonia jet, direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulations were performed for different stagnation pressure conditions using the MD simulation outcomes for smaller cluster–cluster collisions and the Ashgriz–Poo model for cluster sizes larger than 100. We found that, by including the combined coalescence model, the average cluster sizes and size distributions predicted by DSMC agree reasonably well with experiment.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Mar 24, 2011
Source ID
10.1063/1.3561399

Entities

People

  • Deborah A. Levin
  • Zheng Li

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Pennsylvania State University

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Quantum Chemistry

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flight