Evaporation in motion

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to visualize and analyze the fluid dynamics of HFE7100 evaporation into nitrogen, highlighting temperature changes, liquid motion, and the effects of surface tension and buoyancy instabilities.

Contribution

It provides detailed CFD visualizations of evaporation dynamics, including the influence of confinement and instability mechanisms, which are novel insights in this context.

Findings

Flow behavior influenced by surface-tension and buoyancy instabilities

Temperature evolution and liquid motion characterized

Impact of liquid thickness on evaporation dynamics

Abstract

This work presents fluid dynamics videos obtained via numerical (CFD) calculations using ComSol (finite elements method) software, showing the evaporation of HFE7100 (3M company refrigerant) into a nitrogen gas flow along the liquid interface. The overall temperature evolution and liquid motion, which is caused by surface-tension (Marangoni) and buoyancy (Rayleigh) instability mechanisms, are shown as well. Flow behavior in the liquid caused by the aforementioned instability mechanisms can be nicely seen. Finally, these observations are made for three liquid thicknesses in order to appreciate the qualitative influence of confinement.