Coupled Aggregation and Sedimentation Processes: Three Dimensional Off-Lattice Simulations

The coupled aggregation and sedimentation process were studied by means of three dimension computer simulations. For this purpose, a large prism with no periodic boundary conditions for the sedimentation direction was considered. Furthermore, three equally sized and mutually excluded regions were defined inside the prism, a top, a middle and a bottom region. This allows to study the time evolution of the cluster size distribution and the cluster structure for each region. The mass distribution profile and the center of mass position were also accessed as a function of time. For the bottom region, the effects of the sediment formation on the kinetics of growth and on the cluster structure were clearly observed. The obtained results not only agree with the experimental data obtained by Allain et. al. [1] and with the simulations made by Gonzalez [2] but also allow to gain further in the details. PACS. 82.70.Dd Colloids – 82.20.Mj Nonequilibrium kinetics – 02.50.-r Probability theory, stochastic processes and statistics