Equilibrium state of aggregation in suspensions comprising linear clusters

The final state of aggregation in a suspension containing nonbranching, one-dimensional (linear) flocs is investigated. Allowing coagulation to occur at a finite secondary minimum of magnitudeV* rather than the infinite primary well, it is realized that the system eventually reaches steady state where a relatively large number of flocs coexist at equilibrium. It is shown that, under this condition, the number of flocs¯N expected to result is exponentially related to –V* and directly proportional to , whereN _o is the initial number of individual particles in the suspension.