Philipp Schulz, Holger Gerdes, Dennis Barton, Michael Vergöhl, Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, Braunschweig, Germany
In many different environments, particles pose a significant problem. For example, they are able to destroy optical coatings, but they can also become a health issue in the topic of room ventilation. Due to the vast number of phenomena in which harmful particles can occur, each situation might require individual treatment to limit the particle contamination.
To mitigate this problem, we present the PALADIN code. PALADIN, short for Plasma Lattice Dust Integrator, is a simulation software initially developed to model the behavior of particles under low-pressure plasma conditions, but also extended to atmospheric pressure air flows by now. The main input parameters are a 3D geometry mesh and information about the background gasses, which have to be obtained by other means, for example using fluid simulations or a PIC-MC code. Its high flexibility allows it to be used it in many existing and hypothetical scenarios. It was applied to several projects to gain a better understanding of the underlying particle dynamics. Some of the scenarios include magnetron sputtering, spreading of contagious aerosols in hospital rooms and particle motion by electric fields, but other scenarios are also possible in the future.