Averaged Heat Fluxes Densities During Condensation and Evaporation of a Water Droplet

Abstract

This study is intended for experimental investigation of the influence of boundary conditions on the intensity of phase transformations and heat transfer processes in a suspended water droplet. The results of the dynamics of the averaged heat fluxes densities during the droplet phase change cycle are presented and analysed. The influence of the droplet initial temperature, the surrounding air flow temperature and the additional humidity in the air flow were defined in separate regimes of the droplet phase transformations cycle. The experiments performed demonstrated that the parameters of the air flow surrounding the suspended water droplet affect the intensity of heat fluxes in the droplet throughout whole its phase change cycle. It was experimentally claimed that the initial temperature of the water droplet has no influence on the droplet heat and mass transfer processes in the equilibrium evaporation regime. The obtained results showed that most intensity heat flux densities are at the beginning of the droplet phase change cycle when condensation process occurs on the droplet’s surface in case with biggest amount of additional humidity in the surrounding air flow. This is very important in technologies of cleaning and heat recovery from flue gases.