On the kinetics of precipitation

Abstract

In a recent paper, it was shown that the predictions of the LSW theory on the ageing rate and the time development of the size distribution of a precipitate are valid, if at all, only for a rather limited time interval during the early stages of a precipitation. The solution of the differential equation for the later stages, however, shows an unphysical behaviour in that it contains poles. We suggest that the reason for this is to be found in a simplification of the original differential equation which does not seem to be justified. In this contribution we report attempts to solve the original equation.