Vaporization dynamics of a super-heated water-in-oil droplet: modeling and numerical solution

Abstract

The study of vapor bubble growth following droplet vaporization in a superheated liquid involves research areas such as hydrodynamics, heat transfer, mass transfer, and thermodynamics. The interplay between these multiscale aspects is strongly dependent on the geometry, the thermodynamic response, and the local physical properties of the system. To understand the role of each aspect of this complex mechanism we model super-heated droplet vaporization by coupling the equation of motion for bubble growth with the thermodynamics of phase change and heat transfer through the convection-diffusion equation. The semi-analytical model is validated with the analytical description for vapor bubble growth dominated either by inertia (Rayleigh) or by thermal diffusion (Plesset-Zwick), depending on droplet radius and degree of superheat. The effect of a mismatch of the thermal properties between the host liquid and the droplet is shown to be relevant only for low superheating, above which an increase in thermal diffusivity leads to a reduction in the rate of vaporization. At medium to high superheating, the droplet vaporizes completely without relying on thermal diffusion. At the point of complete vaporization, the potential energy within the system drives the bubble overshoots, which vary based on the droplet size and degree of superheat.