An analytical means of comparing the rates of different agglomeration mechanisms, and its application to a PWR containment

Abstract Agglomeration is an important aspect of aerosol behaviour. Unfortunately, it is described by a non-linear integro-differential equation, for which few analytical solutions are known. The equation can be solved numerically, but this approach has disadvantages. In this paper, agglomeration behaviour is described analytically and this quantitative description is used as a means of comparing the rates of different agglomeration mechanisms. The comparison depends on the average particle size but does not require detailed knowledge of the particle size distribution. The method is applied to the agglomeration of an aerosol suspended in the atmosphere of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) containment building. The rate of turbulent agglomeration in the PWR containment depends upon the degree of turbulence at each point in the fluid, expressed as the turbulent energy dissipation rate, s. An approximate model of the containment flow is solved to obtain a satisfactory estimate of the functions of e needed in evaluating turbulent agglomeration rates.