ELECTROCHEMICAL INTERCONNECTIONS: HYDRODINAMIC, GROWTH PATTERNS AND CONTACT MORPHOLOGY. EXPERIMENTAL, THEORETICAL, AND PARALLEL COMPUTATIONAL SIMULATION STUDIES

MARSHALL GUILLERMO, MOLINA FERNANDO, GONZÁLEZ GRACIELA, SILVINA DENGRA, ARIAS EDUARDO, MOCSKOS ESTEBAN, DAFFARA FERNANDO, FERNANDEZ ROBERTO

Santa Fe, Argentina

Congreso; MECOM2002 Congreso Argentino de Mecánica Computacional; 2002

ASOCIACIÓN ARGENTINA DE MECANICA COMPUTACIONAL

RESUMEN: Ion transport and growth morphology in monopolar and bipolar ramified deposit in thin layer cells, under constant and periodic electric field pulses, are studied though experimental measurements and theoretical and computational modeling. The use of optical techniques and micron sized particle image velocimetry, allow the tracking of convection, migration and concentration fronts, the determination of incubation and contact times and the measurement of fluid velocity. The theoretical macroscopic model describes the diffusive, migratory and convective motion of ions in a fluid subject to an electric field. The equations are written in terms of 13 dimensionless quantities, in particular, the Migration, Poisson, Reynolds and Electric and Gravity Grashof numbers, which values determine the prevailing ion transport mode and thus the characteristic of the ramified deposit. Numerical simulations in realistic cell configurations using serial and parallel computing are presented. Theory and simulations predict full front interactions, vortex generation and merging and space-time fronts evolution, in close agreement with the results observed in the experiments.