Data evaluation of laminar flow diffusion chamber nucleation experiments with different computational methods

In order to evaluate the experimental data from laminar flow diffusion chamber (LFDC) experiments on homogeneous nucleation, an extensive postmeasurement computational analysis is required. The present work investigates the influence of the used computational methodology on the derived nucleation curves. To this end a reanalysis is made of previous LFDC experiments of 1-butanol nucleation in helium [D. Brus et al., J. Chem. Phys. 122, 214506 (2005)] using two different methods. The first method is based on single fluid heat and vapor transport in the carrier gas ignoring the aerosol processes, as commonly made in LFDC data evaluations. The second method is more comprehensive as is based on multidimensional computational fluid-particle dynamics. The calculations are made under the usual simplification of one-way coupling between fluid flow and particles, which is a valid approximation in most practical aerosols, while full aerosol dynamical effects are accommodated. Similar results were produced by the two methods. This finding corroborates the usual practice of omitting aerosol calculations in LFDC experimental data evaluation.