Convective evaporation of a water drop in a radiation field

Abstract

A theoretical analysis is made of the convective evaporation of a water drop in the field of strong laser radiation of λ = 10.6 μ. wavelength. A system of integrodifferential equations describing the evaporation process is obtained in the quasisteady approximation. The time dependences of the radius, surface temperature, and temperature at the center of a drop are obtained for the whole of the evaporation process. The upper and lower limits of the convective evaporation regime are derived for drops of different initial radius R0. It is shown that if R0 = 10 μ, the temperature of explosive boiling at the center of the drop is reached when the radiation power density is ~1.3×104 W/cm2.