An aerosol dynamics model for simulating particle formation and growth in a mixed flow chamber

Abstract

Abstract. In this work we model the aerosol size distribution dynamics in a mixed flow chamber in which new particles are formed via nucleation and subsequent condensation of oxidation products of VOCs emitted from Norway spruce seedlings. The microphysical processes included in the model are nucleation, condensation, deposition and coagulation. The aerosol dynamics in the chamber is a competition between aerosol growth and scavenging/deposition which results in a cyclic particle formation process. With a simple 1-product model, in which the formed gas is able to both condense to the particles and nucleate, we are able to catch both the oscillatory features of the particle formation process and the evolution of the number concentration in a reasonable way. The gas-phase chemistry was adjusted using pre-estimated reaction rate constant in the simulations and the particle deposition rate as a function of size was determined experimentally. Despite this, some of the essential features of the physical properties of the aerosol population could still be captured and investigated without the detailed knowledge of the physical processes underlying the problem by using the constructed model. The size dependency of the wall loss coefficient was investigated using a slightly modified measurement set-up.