Role of spatial inhomogeneities in source term aerosol dynamics

The dynamic behavior of aerosols is of considerable interest in nuclear reactor source term studies. Because of the intractable nature of the dynamics, this behavior is studied through solutions of a spatially homogenized equation. There has been a need, however, to understand the effect of the homogenization process on the calculated aerosol distributions. To provide insight into the nature of the approximation and the accuracy of the results calculated with the homogenized (averaged) equations, some typical aerosol distribution problems are solved both with the spatially dependent and the homogenized versions of the aerosol dynamic equations. Comparisons of results show that while in some instances homogenization can be quite useful, there are realistic circumstances where it can lead to substantial deviations from accurate results as obtained by the equation that allows for spatial dependence of aerosol distribution