Analytical methods to calculate condensation rates of a multicomponent droplet

The multicomponent condensational growth and/or evaporation of a droplet in the continuum and transition regimes are considered.
Analytical expressions are derived for the mass fluxes by eliminating the particle surface temperature from the quasi-steady-state multicomponent mass and heat transfer equations. This requires approximating the temperature dependence of the saturation vapor pressures and the coupling of the mass fluxes by series expansion.
The approximation errors involved in deriving the equations are studied by comparing the methods to each other and to previously published models. The growth of a droplet composed of five alcohols forming an ideal mixture is predicted.
The importance of the accurate method to calculate the droplet temperature is revealed.
The derived analytical model for condensation/evaporation fluxes is convenient to use in a numerical general dynamic equation solution routine, where nucleation, condensation, coagulation, deposition and gas-phase chemistry have to be solved simultaneously, and obviously not very much computing time can be consumed in any of the subprocesses.