A random walk approach to Ostwald ripening

We investigate a numerical model of Ostwald ripening in which matter is discretised. The model is based on transport by random walk and certain rules at the phase interfaces which mimic the continuous solution of the diffusion and moving boundary problem. In the limit of low volume fractions the results from our simulations agree quantitatively with the results predicted by the Lifshitz-Slyosov-Wagner theory. In contrast to the LSW model, the volume fraction of particles enters our model as part of the diffusion problem and it may therefore be confidently used to investigate what happens when the volume fraction of particles increases. (C) 2001 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.