Combinatorial solutions to generalized electrorheological kernel aggregation

Abstract

For this paper, we studied the time evolution of a system of coagulating particles under a generalized electrorheological (ER) kernel with real power, $K\left(i,j\right) = \left( \frac{1}{i}+\frac{1}{j} \right)^\alpha$, and monodisperse initial conditions. We used a combinatorial framework in which time and cluster sizes were discrete and the binary aggregation governed the time evolution of the system. We modified a previously-known solution for the constant kernel to cover the generalized ER kernel and used it in the framework to obtain the exact expression for the cluster size distribution (the average number of particles of a given size) and the standard deviation. Our theoretical solution is validated by a comparison to numerically simulated results for several values of $\alpha$ and to the experimental data of coagulating polystyrene particles. Theoretical predictions were accurate for any time of the aggregation process and for a wide range of $\alpha$.