A numerical study for the relationship between natural manganese dendrites and DLA patterns

Abstract

The formation mechanisms and the origin of manganese dendrites on the magnesite ore have been under discussion. The growth process of the manganese dendrites is statistically studied by comparing them to aggregations obtained according to the diffusion limited aggregation (DLA) model via Monte Carlo simulations. In this case, ten manganese dendrite patterns changing from the least dense to the densest aggregations on the surface are separately selected to determine the relationship between real and simulated patterns. The sticking parameter is ranged from 0.05 <= t <= 1. The density-density correlation functions C(r) (their critical exponent A), fractal dimension D-f, critical exponent alpha, and critical exponent beta pertaining to the root mean square (rms) thickness have been computed for both the ten manganese dendrites and the simulated aggregations representing them. The results indicate that manganese dendrites may be determined with the general DLA model. Analyses of manganese dendrites, both scaling and simulations, suggest the growth mechanism for the macroscopic expression of crystalline anisotropy for the dendritic patterns. These results are in good agreement with the values in other literature and can be helpful in comparing natural and simulated aggregations (both dendritic and compact deposits).