Ostwald Ripening — LSW Coarsening Dynamics

Large droplets grow at the expense of smaller ones, driven by the Gibbs-Thomson effect. LSW theory (Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner 1961) predicts the mean radius grows as ⟨R⟩ ~ t^(1/3) and the size distribution reaches a universal self-similar shape.

Parameters

Initial droplets: 80 Surface tension γ: 0.5 Diffusivity D: 1.0

Coarsening

Droplets: 0

⟨R⟩: —

R_max: —

Time: 0

LSW exponent: —

Gibbs-Thomson:
c_eq(R) = c_∞(1 + 2γΩ/RkT)
dr/dt ∝ D(c_mean - c_eq(r))/r

LSW: ⟨R⟩³ ~ Dt
N ~ t^(-1), n(R) universal