| We establish quantitative relationships between the nature of the particle deposition mechanism, ie. diffusive, thermophoretic or inertial deposition, the resulting deposit microstructure and associated effective transport properties. We employed discrete simulations, using deposition models of varying complexity, to computer-generate particulate deposits. Deposits formed by Brownian particles in the presence of a deterministic force were simulated using a two- and three-dimensional on-lattice model. This model, a generalization of the ballistic and diffusion limited aggregation, allowed us to quantify the effect of particle trajectory, expressed in terms of an appropriately defined Peclet number, on the resulting microstructure. Denser deposits formed by spherical particles were generated by algorithmic and dynamic models. The former were used to generate large deposits in a computationally efficient way. Evidence is provided suggesting that the computer-generated algorithmic deposits agree with their 'real-life' counterparts as well as with more 'realistic' deposits generated by dynamic models. The latter allowed us to couple the resulting deposit microstructure and associated effective transport properties to the actual deposition physics determined by the kinetic energy of the arriving particles at impact, angle of incidence and material parameters.;The microstructures of the off-lattice deposits were quantitatively characterized by typical descriptors such as porosity, mean height, surface roughness as well as orientation tensors and isotropic and anisotropic correlation functions. These descriptors were further used to evaluate correlations and theoretical bounds to the effective thermal diffusivity, D;Finally, because of the relevance of the particle size distribution of the actually depositing aerosol in determining the resulting deposit microstructure various questions relating to deposition from polydispersed aerosol populations have been addressed. |
