Estimation of homogeneous nucleation flux via a kinetic model

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Abstract
The proposed kinetic model for condensation under homogeneous conditions, and the onset of unidirectional cluster growth in supersaturated gases, does not suffer from the conceptual flaws that characterize classical nucleation theory. When a full set of simultaneous rate equations is solved, a characteristic time emerges, τn, for each cluster size, at which the production rate, and its rate of conversion to the next size (n+1) are equal. Procedures for estimating the essential parameters are proposed; condensation fluxes Jsskin are evaluated. Since there are practical limits to the cluster size that can be incorporated in the set of simultaneous first-order differential equations, a code was developed for computing an approximate Jssth, based on estimates of a ‘‘constrained equilibrium’’ distribution, Nequ, and identification of its minimum, Neql.