Fine particle deposition in laminar and turbulent flows

Abstract

Abstract The deposition of fine silica and polystyrene spheres was measured for conditions of laminar and turbulent flow (960 ≤ Re ≤ 16040) in a rectangular channel using image analysis. The plate glass deposition surfaces were rendered positively charged by coating them with a cationic copolymer while, under the water chemistry conditions employed, both types of particles were negatively charged. It was found that, contrary to the results for laminar flow, the initial depositon rates in turbulent flow decreased with increasing Re , indicating that deposition was no longer mass‐transfer controlled and that particle attachment played an increasingly important role as Re was raised. Attachment was modelled as a rate process in series with mass transfer in which the attachment rate varies inversely as the square of the friction velocity. Under the conditions of the present experiments, no particle re‐entrainment was observed, so that the declining rate of particle accumulation on the wall recorded in each run could only be attributed to a declining deposition rate. Even where asymptotic accumulations were reached, particle coverages never exceeded 3.5%.