Interaction of evaporating and condensing particles in the free-molecular regime

In a previous paper it was shown that repulsive/attractive forces arise between evaporating/ condensing particles in the free-molecular regime. Here we obtain explicit expressions for these forces in the case of spherical particles with equal temperatures. The temperature of the surrounding vapor is, generally speaking, different from that of the particles. Numerical results are obtained for different values of the ratios between particle and vapor temperatures and pressures, of the particles radii and of the evaporation coefficients. In the case when the evaporation coefficient equals unity, an exact expression is obtained for the force between particles of different radii. A simple model describing coagulation processes and taking the above-mentioned forces into account is proposed. It is shown that for large values of the vapor supersaturation, the influence of these forces on the coagulation rate may be very pronounced. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.