Numerical simulation of acoustic wake effect in acoustic agglomeration under Oseen flow condition

We numerically simulate the hydrodynamic interaction of aerosol particles due to the acoustic wake effect under the Oseen flow condition. Attraction is found for two nearby particles with an orientation angle of 0 to 50° with respect to the acoustic field, and weak repulsion is found outside this range. Good agreement is obtained between the numerical results and experiments in the literature. We study the influence of particle size, sound wave frequency and the particle separation. The result shows that the acoustic wake effect plays a significant role in acoustic agglomeration. It could be either the major agglomeration mechanism of monodisperse aerosols or the major refill mechanism for polydisperse aerosols to supplement orthokinetic interaction.