A generalized system of rate equations governing simultaneous coagulation, surface growth and nucleation of a homogeneous soot dispersion is presented. Coagulation is modeled by free molecule Brownian collision kinetics and surface growth is treated in terms of a global chemical reaction scheme. Particle nucleation is neglected and the equations are numerically integrated to yield the time dependence of particle number density, mean size and size distribution standard deviation. A time dependent lognormal particle volume distribution function (PVDF) is assumed. For coagulation only, the asymptotic lognormal PVDF (i.e., standard deviation = 0.912) is shown to be almost identical to the self-preserving distribution function based on comparison of their respective moments. Particle coagulation is found to strongly influence net particle growth via its effect on particle surface area. The major effect of surface growth on coagulation dynamics is a tendency to narrow the particle size distribution
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