Metastable State Relaxation in a Gravitational Field

A metastable state relaxation equation for a physical system placed into a gravitational field is constructed for non-critical supersaturated solutions which arc in the immediate neighborhood of the coexistence line. Solutions of this equation are obtained in two different regimes: stationary and dynamic. The sedimentation time which can be defined as the time of the subcritical solute cluster redistribution corresponding to the final steady state in the gravitational field is found. The formation of the concentration gradient is proved analytically and its expression through the model parameters is obtained. The following analysis gives the expression for the sedimentation time which does not depend on the column height. The law of the concentration change with respect to the column height is also found and analyzed.