OPEN ACCESS
Homogeneous nucleation of calcium carbonate is a common phenomenon in nature, which has attracted attention from researchers due to its importance in biomineralization processes, climatic changes and incrustations in pipelines. In this work, by using a numerical scheme based on SIMPLE algorithm, 3D numerical simulations are performed for the homogeneous nucleation of calcium carbonate in highly concentrated electrolyte solutions. For this purpose, one couples the Eulerian equations for multiphase flows to the discretized population balance equations, so that the resulting system of non-linear partial differential equations accounts for the mass transfer and changes in the particles size during the precipitation reaction. In order to validate the proposed model, experimental measurements of pH versus time and particles size distribution are compared with theoretical data. The remarkable agreement observed between the theoretical and experimental results indicates that the employed approach can be successfully used in studies of homogeneous nucleation of other sparingly soluble mineral salts.
calcium carbonate nucleation, Eulerian formulation, population balance equation, volumetric precipitation experiments
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