Nonlinear vibrations of a vapor film in the presence of intense heat fluxes

Abstract

Waves propagating along the interface between a thin vapor film and a liquid layer in the presence of a heat flux are investigated. The boundary conditions on the vapor-liquid phase surface take into account the temperature dependence of the pressure and the possibilities of formation of the metastable state of the superheated liquid and mass flow. Variations in the saturation pressure as functions of the temperature and mass flux lead to generation of weakly damped periodic waves of low amplitude whose velocity can be much higher than the velocity of the gravity waves. The waves ensure stability of the vapor film beneath the liquid layer in the gravity field. The finite-amplitude waves on the surface of the vapor film differ from the Stokes surface waves on the free surface of isothermal fluid. Instability regimes related with superheating of the liquid ant its explosive boiling when the amplitude of an initially small wave increases to infinity in a finite time can develop in a certain working-parameter regime.