Analysis of the spatial distribution of aerosol dispersions

Abstract The dispersion of contaminant particles in a fluid media is studied considering the main mechanisms for coagulation and removal, with special emphasis on its application to the field of nuclear reactor safety. Starting from the general balance equation for the aerosol size spectrum as a function of position and time, a diffusion-convection equation is derived using the method of moments. The equation is analyzed for a variety of cases, and the solutions are discussed and compared with existing codes calculations as well as exact analytical solutions. The method presented is very useful in the sense that it reduces the complexity of the spatial aerosol dispersion to the domain of the classical diffusion-convection transport analysis.