Open Access

ARTICLE

INVESTIGATION OF PARTICULAR FEATURES OF THE NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF AN EVAPORATING THIN FILM IN A CHANNEL

Greg Ball, John Polansky, Tarik Kaya^*

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, Canada

* Corresponding Author: E-mail: .

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2013, 4(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.v4.1.3002

Abstract

The fluid flow and heat transfer in an evaporating extended meniscus are numerically studied. Continuity, momentum, energy equations and the Kelvin-Clapeyron model are used to develop a third order, non-linear ordinary differential equation which governs the evaporating thin film. It is shown that the numerical results strongly depend on the choice of the accommodation coefficient and Hamaker constant as well as the initial perturbations. Therefore, in the absence of experimentally verified values, the numerical solutions should be considered as qualitative at best. It is found that the numerical results produce negative liquid pressures under certain specific conditions. This result may suggest that the thin film can be in an unstable state of tension; however, this finding remains speculative without experimental validation. Although similar thin-film models proved to be very useful in gaining qualitative insight into the characteristics of evaporating thin films, the results shown in this study indicate that careful experimental investigations are needed to verify the mathematical models.

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