Moment preserving finite volume schemes for solving population balance equations incorporating aggregation, breakage, growth and source terms

Abstract

In this work we present some moment preserving finite volume schemes (FVS) for solving population balance equations. We are considering unified numerical methods to simultaneous aggregation, breakage, growth and source terms, e.g. for nucleation. The criteria for the preservation of different moments are given. The property of conservation is a special case of preservation. First we present a FVS which shows the preservation with respect to one-moment depending upon the processes under consideration. In case of the aggregation and breakage it satisfies first-moment preservation whereas for the growth and nucleation we observe zeroth-moment preservation. This is due to the well-known property of conservativity of FVS. However, coupling of all the processes shows no preservation for any moments. To overcome this issue, we reformulate the cell average technique into a conservative formulation which is coupled together with a modified upwind scheme to give moment preservation with respect to the first two-moments for all four processes under consideration. This allows for easy coupling of these processes. The preservation is proven mathematically and verified numerically. The numerical results for the first two-moments are verified for various coupled processes where analytical solutions are available.