Wax Segregation in Oils: A Multiscale Problem

Abstract

The nucleation and growth of clusters in a progressively cooled vapor is studied. The chemical-potential of the vapor increases, resulting in a rapidly increasing nucleation rate. The growth of the newly created clusters depletes monomers, and counters the increase in chemical-potential. Eventually, the chemical potential reaches a maximum and begins to decrease. Shortly thereafter the nucleation of new clusters effectively ceases. Assuming a slow quench rate, asymptotic methods are used to convert the non-linear advection equation of the cluster-size distribution into a fourth-order differential equation, which is solved numerically. The distribution of cluster-sizes that emerges from this creation era of the quench process, and the total amount of clusters generated are found.