3D SPH simulations of grain growth in protoplanetary disks

Guillaume Laibe (1) , Jean-François Gonzalez (1) , Laure Fouchet (2) , Sarah T. Maddison (3)

1 CRAL - Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon
2 ETHZ - Physics Department
3 CAS - Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing [Swinburne]

We present the first results of the treatment of grain growth in our 3D, two-fluid (gas+dust) SPH code describing protoplanetary disks. We implement a scheme able to reproduce the variation of grain sizes caused by a variety of physical processes and test it with the analytical expression of grain growth given by Stepinski & Valageas (1997) in simulations of a typical T Tauri disk around a one solar mass star. The results are in agreement with a turbulent growing process and validate the method. We are now able to simulate the grain growth process in a protoplanetary disk given by a more realistic physical description, currently under development. We discuss the implications of the combined effect of grain growth and dust vertical settling and radial migration on subsequent planetesimal formation.

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]; Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]; Astrophysique galactique [astro-ph.GA]

Guillaume Laibe, Jean-François Gonzalez, Laure Fouchet, Sarah T. Maddison. 3D SPH simulations of grain growth in protoplanetary disks. SF2A-2007: Semaine de l'Astrophysique Francaise, Jul 2007, Grenoble, France. à paraître. ⟨hal-00173456⟩