Transients of Marangoni and Stefan advection dynamics during generic sessile droplet evaporation

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We probe the transient evolution of Marangoni thermo-hydrodynamics in the liquid domain and the Stefan advection in the gaseous domain during evaporation of sessile droplets with generic contact line dynamics [both constant contact radius (CCR) and constant contact angle (CCA) modes]. A transient arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian framework was considered to computationally model the evaporation phenomenon over the droplet lifetime. The governing equations corresponding to the transport processes in both liquid and gaseous domains are simulated in a fully coupled manner, while precisely tracing the liquid–vapor interface and three phase contact line. The effects of the wetting state and contact line dynamics during CCR and CCA modes were explored, and good agreement with experimental observations is noted. The results show that the non-uniformity in an internal temperature field due to evaporation leads to formation of multi-vortex Marangoni patterns in the flow field at initial periods. At the quasi-stable state, the temperature variation becomes monotonic, thereby resulting in a single recirculation vortex in both liquid and gaseous domains. For the CCR mode, the strength of these advection fields is solely governed by a critical contact angle of ∼32°, which is determined to correspond to the critical Marangoni number. Beyond this critical point, viscous action becomes significant, and the fluid motion mitigates progressively with the formation of twin vortices at final stages due to localized heat advection near the contact line. For the CCA mode, the strength of initial vortices augments with progressing time due to amplified evaporative fluxes at smaller contact radius. The internal thermofluidic patterns and evaporative modes in turn modulate the external Stefan flow fields and neighborhood temperature fields. These findings may hold strong implications for efficient functioning of practical droplet based processes involving transport, mixing, and deposition of dissolved particles.