Growth characteristics of submicron particles by water vapor condensation in the multi-section growth tube.

In order to study the growth characteristics of submicron particles by water vapor condensation in the multi-section growth tube, the three-stage heterogeneous condensation process model was used to predict the size distribution of grown droplets. And the supersaturated environment is formed by the cool saturated flow into a warm-walled growth tube. The calculated results show that with the increase of the section number of the growth tube, the more obviously enhanced growth effect is presented when the growth tube length is shorter and the particle number concentration is lower. Nevertheless, the increase of the section number has more advantages of particle enlargement when the CO 2 concentration improved. Additionally, more section number of growth tube could strongly improve the particle growth on the condition of elevating the wall temperature compared with the situation of reducing the inlet temperature. Meanwhile, the final mean size of grown droplets could be enhanced by 16.03% and 3.46% with the section number from 5 increasing to 15 in the case of promoting wall temperature or declining inlet temperature by 10 K, respectively. [Display omitted] • The more section number improve growth strongly with the reduction of tube length. • The more section number is in favor of better growth with lower particle number. • The increase of section number is more beneficial to enlargement when CO 2 improved. • Strongly enhanced growth is shown on more section and elevating wall temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]