Aerosol particles scavenging by a droplet: Microphysical modeling in the Greenfield gap

Studying the scavenging of aerosol particle by drops has been a key topic of atmospheric science since the late seventies, given its relationships with atmospheric depollution, with the physics of clouds and precipitations and with global warming. However, the efficiency with which falling droplets capture aerosol particles is still imprecisely known for a wide range of drop Reynolds number, Weber numbers, aerosol particles inertia and Brownian Schmidt number. In this paper, microphysical modeling is used to compute precisely the drop collection efficiency for aerosol particles around the Greenfield gap which are submitted to both drag force and Brownian motion, for droplets falling in quiescent air at moderate Reynolds number (Red≤100). Depending on the impactional or diffusional parameters, the collection regions on the drop surface are highlighted. The results are then compressed by a correlation which extends the field of use of the theoretical model of Wang et al. (1978) by taking inertial capture into account. The proposed correlation is suitable to estimate the aerosol scavenging efficiency for a non-evaporating, non-deforming drop with Red≤100 and particle Stokes number Stp∈[0;+∞]. In case of evaporating or condensing droplets, the effect of thermophoresis and diffusiophoresis are also taken into account through an extension of the formulation proposed by Wang et al. (1978) and hence with similar accuracy. •Microphysical modeling of aerosol scavenging by a drop.•Completing missing collection efficiency data in the Greenfield gap.•Highlighting preferential capture zone on the drop surface.•Proposing a correlation extending the Wang et al. (1978) collection kernel.