Vapor condensation on aerosols: Numerical simulation

Vapor/gas condensation and evaporation from particles (liquid/solid) play an important role in nuclear reactor thermal hydraulics and source term estimations. The reactor safety analysis codes model this process using a variety of phenomenological descriptions and numerical techniques. The authors have recently constructed a new model for condensation, and have provided some benchmark results that can be used for assessment of accuracy of various popular numerical techniques of solving the relevant aerosol evolution equation. It is the purpose here to describe some results of this assessment. Also offered are a few suggestions that should be helpful in improving the modeling efforts.