Sticking probabilities of fractal aggregates

Abstract

An attempt was made to experimentally estimate the sticking probabilities of fractal aggregates of fine particles. The experiment was done using MgO fine particles floating in air under normal gravity. The growth in size of the aggregates was monitored by scattered He-Ne laser light. Our preliminary result suggests that the sticking probability decreases with increase in aggregate size. There are, however, still many uncertainties in the method of determining the sticking probabilities. Since this study is still at a developing stage, in this article we provide a general description of the experimental set-up, without giving details of various aspects of the problem