Ostwald ripening in open systems

We consider coarsening processes of precipitates in open systems where homogeneous cells are coupled together by the diffusion of the solute. Using dynamical scaling assumptions and performing numerical simulations on a two-cell model, we have obtained the following results: First, the supersaturation in each cell asymptotically obeys the same Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner (LSW) scaling law for a closed system. Second, other physical quantities, such as the size distribution function of precipitates, obey new scaling laws, when the total amount of both the solute and the precipitates in the cell flows out into the other cell. The asymptotic long time behavior of such physical quantities are highly dependent on the initial conditions.