DIFFUSION-LIMITED AGGREGATION IN LAMINAR FLOWS

In the diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) model, pioneered by Witten and Sander (Phys. Rev. Lett.47, 1400 (1981)), diffusing particles irreversibly attach to a growing cluster which is initiated with a single solid seed. This process generates clusters with a branched morphology. Advection–diffusion-limited aggregation (ADLA) is a straightforward extension to this model, where the transport of the aggregating particles not only depends on diffusion, but also on a fluid flow. The authors studying two-dimensional and three-dimensional ADLA in laminar flows reported that clusters grow preferentially against the flow direction. The internal structure of the clusters was mostly reported to remain unaffected, except by Kaandorp et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett.77, 2328 (1996)) who found compact clusters "as the flow becomes more important". In the present paper we present three-dimensional simulations of ADLA. We did not find significant effects of low Reynolds-number advection on the cluster structure. The contradicting results by Kaandorp et al. (1996) were recovered only when the relaxation into equilibrium of the advection–diffusion field was too slow, in combination with the synchronous addition of multiple particles.