A STOCHASTIC SIMULATION SCHEME FOR STUDYING PORE VOLUME TRAPPING IN ASTRUCTURE OF GROWING PARTICLES

A stochastic computational scheme is developed for investigating forma tion of trapped (isolated) pore volume in a structure of growing parti cles, with particle growth occurring only on surface elements exposed to the connected (accessible) part of the pore space. The simulation p rocedure combines a gradual increase of the particle size with a rando m walk scheme, the latter used to determine whether a randomly chosen point in the unit cell of the two-phase structure lies in the particle phase or in the connected or isolated part of the matrix phase. The f ormulated algorithm is applied to structures of freely overlapping, un idirectional cylinders, and results are obtained both for the volume f ractions and the specific surface areas of the accessible and inaccess ible parts of the pore phase. The trapped volume results are compared with those obtained for ordinary continuum percolation,that is, for un iformly growing particles. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.