Numerical Modeling of the Coagulation and Porosity Evolution of Dust Aggregates

TL;DR

This paper introduces a computationally efficient numerical method and a new collision model for simulating dust aggregate coagulation and porosity evolution, with implications for understanding dust growth in protoplanetary disks.

Contribution

It presents a novel numerical extension of the Smoluchowski equation and a collision model based on N-body experiments for porous dust aggregates.

Findings

The new method reproduces Monte Carlo results with less computational cost.

The collision model accurately predicts fractal dimensions of porous aggregates.

High-mass aggregates can have low aerodynamical cross sections, affecting dust growth.

Abstract

Porosity evolution of dust aggregates is crucial in understanding dust evolution in protoplanetary disks. In this study, we present useful tools to study the coagulation and porosity evolution of dust aggregates. First, we present a new numerical method for simulating dust coagulation and porosity evolution as an extension of the conventional Smoluchowski equation. This method follows the evolution of the mean porosity for each aggregate mass simultaneously with the evolution of the mass distribution function. This method reproduces the results of previous Monte Carlo simulations with much less computational expense. Second, we propose a new collision model for porous dust aggregates on the basis of our N-body experiments on aggregate collisions. We first obtain empirical data on porosity changes between the classical limits of ballistic cluster-cluster and particle-cluster aggregation. Using the data, we construct a recipe for the porosity change due to general hit-and-stick collisions as well as formulae for the aerodynamical and collisional cross sections. Simple coagulation simulations using the extended Smoluchowski method show that our collision model explains the fractal dimensions of porous aggregates observed in a full N-body simulation and a laboratory experiment. Besides, we discover that aggregates at the high-mass end of the distribution can have a considerably small aerodynamical cross section per unit mass compared with aggregates of lower masses. We point out an important implication of this discovery for dust growth in protoplanetary disks.