Computational modeling of ion transport in electrodeposition

G MARSHALL; F. V. MOLINA; S DENGRA; E MOCSKOS; E ARIAS

Applications of Computational Mechanics in Structures and Fluids

CINME

Lugar: Barcelona; Año: 2005; p. 40 - 57

Ion transport and growth morphology in monopolar and bipolar ramified deposits inthin-layer cells are studied through theoretical and computational modeling. Thetheoretical macroscopic model is based on first principles, using the Nernst-Planckequations for ion transport, the Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential and theNavier-Stokes equations for the fluid flow. Numerical simulations in realistic cell configurations using serial and  parallel computing are presented. In the parallel simulations, use is made of domain decomposition techniques with a strongly implicit iterative method and its implementation in a 16 node Beowulf cluster under MPI and Linux. This allows the utilization of very fine grids in highly distorted domains with a more realistic physical parametrization and results in a robust algorithm attaining almost linear speedup. Theory and simulations, in gravitoconvective prevailing conditions, predict full front interaction, vortex tubes generation and merging and a space-timefronts evolution, in close agreement with the results observed in the experiments.