oa Fluid-physical Simulation of Silicate Scale Formation Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

Scaling is a key phenomenon that obstructs fluid circulation in plumbing system. Our goal in this study is to evaluate the importance of both chemical kinetic and hydrodynamic effects on silica deposition. For qualitative and quantitative discussion, we estimate the amount and the distribution of silica deposition with these two processes based on the numerical simulation and compare with the observation from a field experiment. We solve the fluid, temperature and dissolved silica concentration field by using the lattice Boltzmann method. From our simulation results, it is found that the effects of the hydrodynamic process are very important to reproduce the growth of scale qualitatively, whereas the simple chemical kinetic deposition could not sufficiently contribute to the real silica deposition. It is, therefore, necessary to emphasize the hydrodynamic effect should be take into account for reproducing silica scaling.