Nucleation and condensation model development

This is a final report of a one-year, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The purpose of this project was to bring to maturity a theoretical and experimental capability of the Laboratory to perform basic research in nucleation and condensation of water vapor. This report provides a general description of this capability and summarizes specific work in two areas: development and use of a combustive flow facility (CFF) to measure water monomer depletion in a supersonic nozzle and nucleation pulse experiments for investigation of transport effects on water droplet growth dynamics. The later work was performed in collaboration with Dr. Wehrner Strey in Goettingen, Germany. Preliminary water absorption data from the CFF experiment are presented. The nucleation pulse data is described along with an analysis that shows under the condition of the experiment the growth rate of water droplets is limited by monomer diffusion