Experimental and Theoretical Investigation on Rapid Evaporation of Ethanol Droplets and Kerosene Droplets During Depressurization

This paper reports an experimental and theoretical study of rapid evaporation of ethanol droplets and kerosene droplets during depressurization. For experimental method, an ethanol droplet or a kerosene droplet was suspended on a thermocouple, which was also used to measure the droplet center temperature transition. And the droplet shape variation was recorded by a high speed camera. A theoretical analysis was developed based on the heat balance to estimate the droplet center temperature transition, and the evaporation model proposed by Abramzon and Sirignano was used to describe the droplet vaporization. According to the experimental data and theoretical analysis, both of the environmental pressure and the initial droplet diameter have a prominent influence on the droplet temperature transition. Comparing the evaporation processes of ethanol droplets and kerosene droplets with water droplets, the ethanol droplets have the fastest evaporation rate, followed by water, and the evaporation rates of kerosene droplets are the slowest. Also it was found that a bubble can easily emerge within kerosene droplet, and its lifetime is more than 1 s.     

Theoretical Investigation on Rapid Evaporation of a Saline Droplet During Depressurization

This paper reports a theoretical investigation on rapid evaporation of a saline droplet during depressurization. A mathematical model was developed to simulate the droplet temperature variation by considering the ambient pressure change, the heat transfers due to evaporation and convection at the droplet surface, accompanying the heat and mass transfer inside the droplet. The component diffusion and the temperature gradient inside the droplet were mainly discussed by comparing the numerical droplet temperature with the experimental data. The result shows that, the variation of internal concentration is small, while the temperature gradient within the droplet is significant during the evaporation process. In addition, the influencing factors of the droplet temperature variation were analyzed, such as: the final ambient pressure, theinitial salt concentration and the initial droplet temperature. The present model calculations help to understand the thermodynamic process of rapid evaporation of a saline droplet during depressurization.     

On-demand mixing droplet spotter for preparing picoliter droplets on surfaces

An on-demand mixing droplet spotter for generating and mixing picoliter droplets has been developed for ultrasmall reaction vessels. The droplets were generated by applying a approximately 500-V, approximately 2-ms pulsed voltage to the tips of capillary tubes (o.d. approximately 20 microm; i.d. approximately 12 microm) filled with solution. The mixing process was achieved using electrostatic force. The initial droplet was formed by applying the pulsed voltage between one capillary and the substrate, and the second jet of the other solution was generated from the other capillary and collided with the initial droplet automatically because the electric field lines concentrated on the initial droplet. Using this mixing process, a microarray having a concentration gradient was obtained by spotting approximately 6-pL droplets on a surface with a density of one spot per 75 x 75 microm(2).     

Numerical investigation of solidification of single droplets with and without evaporation mechanism

According to some experimental observations, water droplet with high initial temperature freezes faster than a cold one. There are some explanations to this problem such as sub-cooling, evaporation and radiation. In this work, solidification process of single droplets with and without the effect of evaporation is numerically investigated for three different drop diameters and initial temperatures. It seems that evaporation itself is able to explain why hot water freezes faster than cold water.     

Modelling aerosol processes related to the atmospheric dispersion of sarin

We have developed mathematical models for evaluating the atmospheric dispersion of selected chemical warfare agents (CWA), including the evaporation and settling of contaminant liquid droplets. The models and numerical results presented may be utilised for designing protection and control measures against the conceivable use of CWA's. The model AERCLOUD (AERosol CLOUD) was extended to treat two nerve agents, sarin and VX, and the mustard agent. This model evaluates the thermodynamical evolution of a five-component aerosol mixture, consisting of two-component droplets together with the surrounding three-component gas. We have performed numerical computations with this model on the evaporation and settling of airborne sarin droplets in characteristic dispersal and atmospheric conditions. In particular, we have evaluated the maximum radii (r(M)) of a totally evaporating droplet, in terms of the ambient temperature and contaminant vapour concentration. The radii r(M) range from approximately 15-80 microm for sarin droplets for the selected ambient conditions and initial heights. We have also evaluated deposition fractions in terms of the initial droplet size.     

Numerical simulation of gas-droplets mixing and spray evaporation in rotary spray desulfurization tower

Motion and evaporation of droplets significantly affect the semidry flue gas desulfurization efficiency and long-term operation. Both the flow field distribution and the heat and mass transfer in the spray towers are studied by numerical simulation, and the process of droplet motion and evaporation is analyzed in detail. Then, two indices, mixing variance and droplet mass-weighted life, are provided to quantify gas droplet mixing and the droplet group evaporation time. The simulation results show that the radial penetration distance of the droplets is longer with the diameter increase, and the appropriate swirl number improves the mixing between the flue gas and droplets. With the increase of droplet diameter and velocity, the droplet distribution in the tower is more widely, obtaining the optimum mixing variance. The droplet mass-weighted life is promoted linearly with the increase of average droplet diameter and the decrease of flue gas temperature. With flue gas temperature increase from 458 k to 488 K, the droplet mass-weighted life decreases linearly by 31%. In comparison, the initial droplet velocity and spray angle have a slight effect on the droplet mass-weighted life.     

低压环境固着盐水液滴蒸发析晶过程实验研究

实验研究了低压环境下固着盐水液滴在不同基底表面(铜、载玻片和聚四氟乙烯)的蒸发析晶过程,分析了表面性质和环境压力的影响。结果表明,低压环境下易在接触线处析出白色盐晶。铜表面由于表面能较大,接触面上覆盖盐晶体,液滴蒸发过程接触直径几乎不变,接触角逐渐减小。在载玻片表面,当环境压力较高时,液滴蒸发造成接触线收缩,伴随盐晶体的生长和移动接触角波动。在聚四氟乙烯表面,接触面处易产生气泡,气泡的生长和爆裂导致接触角明显波动。Pe数可以揭示液滴蒸发过程外部传质扩散和内部离子扩散的相对大小。研究成果有助于指导海水淡化的工业应用。     

接触角和质量分数对液滴冻结过程的影响

本文通过Fluent软件的凝固/熔化模型,模拟了接触角及质量分数对纯水和氯化钠溶液在冷表面冻结过程的影响,选择铜片为亲水表面,纳米膜表面为疏水表面,对液滴在不同表面特性条件下的冻结过程进行实验研究.结果表明:液滴在冷表面的冻结特性与接触角、质量分数有关.当溶液质量分数一定时,接触角越小,液滴冻结速度越快,完全冻结时间越...     

脱硫废水烟气喷射蒸发流动特性实验研究

确保喷雾液滴在接触烟道壁面前完全蒸发,是保障电站脱硫废水在锅炉尾部烟道内蒸发处理安全运行的关键。喷雾液滴的破碎、聚并等动力学行为,以及液滴群的粒径分布和速度等因素的影响机制,是喷雾蒸发的主要特性。设计搭建了热态风洞实验台,利用激光粒度分析仪和粒子图像测速仪（particle image velocimeter,PIV）,在不同的引射空气压力、喷嘴水流量,以及风速、加热空气温度等条件下,对喷雾液滴群的粒径变化和速度变化进行了测量和分析。实验结果表明：以大液滴形态离开喷嘴的射流在引射气流的携带作用下,因破碎而形成小液滴,而后液滴间聚并效果会显现出来。液滴初始粒径仅与引射气体压力和水流量有关;风速的提高一定程度上会促进液滴间的聚并。提高高压气体压力、温度、风速以及减小水流量均有助于提高液滴群速度,其中提高风速对液滴群的增速效果最为明显。研究结果为喷雾的数值模拟及工程应用改进方向提供了参考。     

Solidification contact angles of molten droplets deposited on solid surfaces

Droplet impact and equilibrium contact angle have been extensively studied. However, solidification contact angle, which is the final contact angle formed by molten droplets impacting on cold surfaces, has never been a study focus. The formation of this type of contact angle was investigated by experimentally studying the deposition of micro-size droplets (∼39 μm in diameter) of molten wax ink on cold solid surfaces. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to visualize dots formed by droplets impacted under various impact conditions, and parameters varied included droplet initial temperature, substrate temperature, flight distance of droplet, and type of substrate surface. It was found that the solidification contact angle was not single-valued for given droplet and substrate materials and substrate temperature, but was strongly dependent on the impact history of droplet. The angle decreased with increasing substrate and droplet temperatures. Smaller angles were formed on the surface with high wettability, and this wetting effect increased with increasing substrate temperature. Applying oil lubricant to solid surfaces could change solidification contact angle by affecting the local fluid dynamics near the contact line of spreading droplets. Assuming final shape as hemispheres did not give correct data of contact angles, since the final shape of deposited droplets significantly differs from a hemispherical shape.     

A lattice Boltzmann model for solidification of water droplet on cold flat plate

Since the solidification of water droplet is the initial and essential process in the whole process of frosting, a model is developed by the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) that applies the velocity and temperature distribution functions to investigate the solidification process of water droplet on cold flat plate. The thermal transport and liquid–solid phase transition in the present model are both based on the pseudo-potential model combined with the enthalpy formation. By this LB model, the solidification process is simulated in form of temperature and solid phase variations in water droplet on cold flat plate, and the shape of solid phase in freezing can also be predicted. In addition, we apply the present LB model to preliminarily study the frost formation process. Numerical results agree well with our experimental data.     

The Image Processing of Droplet for Evaporation Experiment in SJ-10

We have completed an experiment for droplet evaporation processing using Young-Laplace fitting, exponent fitting, polynomial fitting and ellipse fitting, which could be used for multiple shapes of droplets. The droplet evaporation experiment test was an important science experiment in SJ-10. In order to get the change process of the physical parameter, such as the touching edges and the droplet evaporation rate, we had gained the contour edge image of the droplet and used mathematic method to do the fitting analysis. The accuracy of the physical parameter was depended on the accuracy of the mathematic fitting. Using the original Young-Laplace fitting method could not process all the images of evaporation and liquid interface from the space experiment facility of SJ-10, especially the smaller droplet images. We could get more accurate contour fitting and result using the new method described in this article. This article proposes a complete solution, including edge detecting and contour fitting. In edge detecting, Canny detector was applied to extract droplet edge. In contour fitting, Young-Laplace fitting, exponent fitting, polynomial fitting and ellipse fitting are designed to fit the contour of droplets, which make the solution apply to all of droplets in SJ-10.     

液滴干燥过程的模拟研究

为更直观地体现液滴蒸发历程,详细分析液滴内部溶剂浓度与液滴比热、液滴表面饱和蒸气压、溶剂扩散系数之间的耦合关系,建立同时考虑液滴内部温度梯度变化及浓度梯度变化的单液滴蒸发模型,并基于网格重构技术解决液滴蒸发过程中的动边界问题,分别以纯水滴和硫酸钠溶液液滴蒸发为例,模拟分析不同操作工况下,液滴滴径、液滴内部温度梯度及溶质浓度梯度的瞬态变化。结果表明:数值模拟的结果与实验结果基本吻合。     

MEASUREMENT OF THE KINETICS OF SOLUTION DROPLETS IN A CONTINUOUSLY MIXED CHAMBER

An experimental system is designed for the measurement of the evaporation and growth kinetics of individual solution droplets. Electrostatically charged droplets, nominally tens of micrometers in diameter, are suspended in a hyperboloidal electrodynamic chamber by balancing the droplet ueight against a uniform electrostatic field. By controlling the mixing dynamics in the chamber with specific flow configurations, a continuously mixed chamber is achieved. Consequently the Instantaneous chamber relative humidity is predicted from an exponential law with o characteristic relaxation time which is given by the ratio of the chamber volume and the gas volumetric flow rate. The evaporation and growth kinetics of phosphoric acid droplets is measured for relative humidity changes between 30 and 80%. Comparison between experimental and theoretical instantaneous droplet masses reveals less than a 5% deviation.The present system is employed to analyze the effect of adsorbed hexadecanol surfactant molecules on the evaporation and growth kinetics of phosphoric acid droplets. It is found a critical coverage exists which will result in a dramatic reduction in the evaporation kinetics of solution droplets. ConcomiCantly, the condensation coefficient is reduced from unity to 4.0 x 10-5 as droplet kinetics occur in the presence of a complete monolayer of hexadecanol.     

MEASUREMENT OF THE KINETICS OF SOLUTION DROPLETS IN A CONTINUOUSLY MIXED CHAMBER

ABSTRACT

An experimental system is designed for the measurement of the evaporation and growth kinetics of individual solution droplets. Electrostatically charged droplets, nominally tens of micrometers in diameter, are suspended in a hyperboloidal electrodynamic chamber by balancing the droplet ueight against a uniform electrostatic field. By controlling the mixing dynamics in the chamber with specific flow configurations, a continuously mixed chamber is achieved. Consequently the Instantaneous chamber relative humidity is predicted from an exponential law with o characteristic relaxation time which is given by the ratio of the chamber volume and the gas volumetric flow rate. The evaporation and growth kinetics of phosphoric acid droplets is measured for relative humidity changes between 30 and 80%. Comparison between experimental and theoretical instantaneous droplet masses reveals less than a 5% deviation.The present system is employed to analyze the effect of adsorbed hexadecanol surfactant molecules on the evaporation and growth kinetics of phosphoric acid droplets. It is found a critical coverage exists which will result in a dramatic reduction in the evaporation kinetics of solution droplets. ConcomiCantly, the condensation coefficient is reduced from unity to 4.0 x 10-5 as droplet kinetics occur in the presence of a complete monolayer of hexadecanol.     

Numerical Simulation of Unsteady Flows and Shape Oscillations in Liquid Droplets Induced by Deployment Needle Retraction

Retractable opposed needles are often used in reduced-gravity droplet combustion experiments to deploy droplets prior to ignition. Needle retraction induces droplet shape oscillations and internal flows that can have important effects on subsequent droplet behaviors. In the present paper, the unsteady flows and droplet shape oscillations associated with deployment needle retraction are investigated using the commercial CFD software package Fluent. A volume-of-fluid method with a second-order upwind scheme and a dual time stepping solver is employed to solve the conservation equations in 2-d and 3-d simulations of droplets prior to ignition. A moving-mesh method is employed to model needle movements. Calculations indicate that rapid needle retraction causes ligament formation between a droplet and a needle, with ligament breakage sometimes resulting in the formation of satellite droplets. Needle retraction also induces droplet shape oscillations that rapidly decay, though significant internal flows are predicted to remain within droplets even after droplet shape oscillations have damped to low levels. The calculations indicate that the initial needle spacing can have important effects on droplet shape oscillations and internal flow characteristics. Comparison of model predictions and experimental data is favorable.     

Study on ice slurry production by water spray

A theoretical and experimental study was performed to examine the water spray method of ice slurry production. First, the conditions for the formation of ice particles were investigated theoretically by the diffusion-controlled evaporation model. The prediction of the model was proved to agree relatively well with experiments in which we examined the conditions for a droplet of initial temperature 20°C and size 50 μm to change into an ice particle in a chamber of height 1.33 m. Second, the production of cold storage heat will increase almost proportionally to the number of spray nozzles because no substantial difference was found in the Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) of sprays from single and twin nozzle. Third, an ice slurry was experimentally obtained by spraying droplets of 7% ethylene glycol aqueous solution in a vacuum chamber where pressure is maintained below the freezing point of the solution. Finally, based on the theoretical and experimental results, we propose an optimizing chart for providing the operating conditions to make ice slurry using the relations of the staying time of the droplet in the chamber, the injection pressure, the spray droplet size and the chamber pressure.     

Initial stages of deposition and film formation during spray pyrolysis — Nickel oxide, cerium gadolinium oxide and mixtures thereof

The formation of nickel oxide (NiO), cerium gadolinium oxide (CGO) and NiO-CGO thin films by air blast spray pyrolysis was studied at two scales. First, single droplets of precursor were deposited on sapphire substrates and the morphology of the formed residue was studied as a function of the substrate surface temperature, type of metal salt, salt saturation, and organic solvent in the precursor. Second, the synthesis of continuous films from repetitively deposited droplets and crack formation in the films were studied as a function of substrate temperature and salt decomposition kinetics. Nitrates, acetates, perchlorates and chlorides of nickel, cerium and gadolinium were the metal salts used, and mixtures of ethanol or water with di-, tri- and tetraethylene glycol were used as solvents.Regular ring- or disc-shaped deposits were formed from single droplets that evaporated without boiling and were mainly observed with metal acetate- and chloride-based spray solutions or at low substrate temperatures. Disc-shaped residues were obtained for saturated salt solutions and changed to rings with diminishing rim thickness with decreasing salt saturation. The formation of bubbles in the droplet from boiling or salt decomposition during evaporation resulted in the distortion of the circular shape and was predominantly observed for metal nitrate-based precursors and at high substrate surface temperatures.Continuous, dense and crack-free films of CGO and NiO-CGO with thicknesses up to 500 and 800 nm, respectively, were prepared from metal nitrate/chloride mixtures in a tetraethylene glycol-based solvent. The maximum crack-free thickness decreased with decreasing deposition temperature and was correlated to the metal salt decomposition kinetics.     

Study of chemistry in droplets with net charge before and after Coulomb explosion: ion-induced nucleation in solution and implications for ion production in an electrospray

Droplets with net charge are essential intermediaries in the production of gaseous ions in the electrospray (ES) ion source. There could be a wealth of knowledge regarding the chemistry that occurs in such droplets as a result of their violation of electroneutrality. Such information could lead to improved understanding of the ion generation process in an ES along with factors that affect it. The experiments performed involved the levitation of individually charged droplets that were, and were not, allowed to undergo Coulomb explosion while they remained levitated in an electrodynamic balance (EDB). Through examination of precipitates formed within the levitated droplets, it was observed that onset of NaCl precipitation was promoted in droplets (glycerol:water 9:1 v/v) that had mass-to-net-charge (m/z) ratio <-4.8 x 10(9) amu/e. This threshold m/z value is exceeded in essentially all droplets generated in an ES because it is above the calculated threshold for Coulomb explosion. This finding suggests that cluster formation in droplets having net charge could occur at solute concentrations lower than would be anticipated on the basis of homogeneous nucleation. The effect of large entities such as precipitates existing in the droplet on the dynamics of droplet Coulomb explosion was also examined. Using droplets whose initial size and magnitude of net charge were equivalent within experimental error but having different concentration of solutes, we showed that the m/z of their main residues following Coulomb explosion were different. Micrometer-size droplets containing 20 nm fluorescent beads that underwent Coulomb explosion resulted in main residues that had higher m/z for higher initial bead concentration in the starting solution (320 nM) when compared to main residues resultant from starting solutions having lower initial bead concentration (21 nM).     

The inclusion of the effect of the evaporation coefficient on the rate of variation of droplet radius

The paper deals with the investigation of the effect of the evaporation (condensation) coefficient of droplet substance on the rate of unsteady variation of the radius of a spherical aerosol droplet in the cases of direct and indirect inclusion of this coefficient. It is found in both cases that the effect of evaporation coefficient is most significant at the initial instant of unsteady-state process of evaporation and of condensation growth of the droplet. At this instant, the size of spherical droplet has hardly any impact on the rate of variation of its radius. As the unsteady-state process continues, the effect of the evaporation coefficient on the rate of variation of the droplet radius depends significantly on the droplet size. The larger the droplet under consideration, the lower the effect of the evaporation coefficient on the rate of variation of its radius. The rates of variation, calculated for the same values of the evaporation coefficient but for different ways of inclusion of this coefficient, differ less for larger aerosol droplets. These methods of inclusion of the evaporation coefficient are considered for the process of slow evaporation of a droplet.