Abstract
Dispersed solid particles or liquid drops suspended in a gaseous continuum are called aerosol particles. The phenomenon that aerosol particles will be driven to move toward lower temperature regions, when placed in a gaseous medium with temperature gradient, is known as thermophoresis (thermophoretic motion). Aerosol particles may interact with surrounding boundaries so that their kinetic behavior will differ from that in the absence of boundaries. In this thesis the numerical results of creeping and thermophoretic motions of a single spherical aerosol particle in the vicinity of different shape of boundaries are presented. The aerosol particle and the boundary, which can be located at arbitrarily relative position, can have arbitrary dimensions, and physical and surface properties. Under the assumption of low Reynolds and Peclet numbers, the convective momentum and heat transfer terms can be neglected so that the governing equations of the velocity and temperature distributions of the fluid can be reduced to Stokes, continuity, and Laplace equations. By the use of boundary collocation technique, the numerical results of the translational, rotational, and thermophoretic velocities can be accurately outputed. The results show that under the presence of boundaries, the creeping and thermophoretic motion of the aerosol particle will be pronounced affected, and boundary effect will be more significant if the aerosol particle is located closer to the boundaries. Moreover, an induced translational or rotational velocity of the aerosol particle will be produced when the aerosol particle is located at asymmetric positions.