An experimental and theoretical study of particle deposition due to thermophoresis and turbulence in an annular flow

The paper describes an experimental and theoretical study of the deposition of small particles from a turbulent annular-flow with cross-stream temperature variation, focusing on the effects of thermophoresis. Various expressions for the thermophoretic force on a spherical particle are critically discussed. The well-known composite formula of Talbot et al. (1980) does not include the ‘second mechanism of thermophoresis’ and it is concluded that the more recent theoretical approach of Beresnev and Chernyak (1995) is probably more reliable. New experimental measurements of particle deposition from a turbulent flow with cross-stream temperature gradients are then presented. The measurement technique is similar to the method of Liu and Agarwal (1974) but in the test section the aerosol flows vertically downwards in an annular gap between two concentric pipes. By heating the outer pipe and cooling the inner it is possible to establish a substantial, near-constant temperature difference between the two walls and hence a thermophoretic force which varies only with radius. Numerical calculations provide a comparison of theory with experiment. The theory is based on the turbulent deposition models of Young and Leeming (1997) and Slater et al. (2003) modified to include thermophoresis and the annular geometry. The theory of Beresnev and Chernyak gives good agreement with the experimental measurements.