Accurate Prediction of Transport Coefficients of an Evaporating Liquid Drop

Abstract

Numerical simulations were carried out to study the evaporation of a drop that is released into a parallel stream of fluid at a higher temperature. A coupled level-set and volume-of-fluid (CLSVOF) interface capturing method was deployed to capture the dynamic interface between the drop liquid and the surrounding fluid. Modified forms of mass, momentum, and energy equations were solved together with the species concentration equation. The pressure jump at the interface was handled by accurate estimation of the continuum surface force. The jumps in mass and energy at the interface were carefully resolved by considering appropriate source terms in the continuity and energy equations. At the interface, the procedure of velocity computation was incorporated by extending the liquid-phase velocity onto the entire domain and by calculating the Stefan flow to predict the interface velocity accurately. The calculation of the velocity using this step leads to the exact estimation of mass transfer through the interface. The model was validated against both temperature gradient-based and vapor mass concentration gradient-based evaporation test cases. Temporal histories of the average Nusselt number and Sherwood number during the lifetime of an evaporating drop were predicted in terms of the pertinent input parameters, namely, Reynolds number, Prandtl number, and Schmidt number.