In the present work, we experimentally investigated the effect of initial liquid droplet size on the evaporation in the heterogeneous droplet. Spherical carbon and water were used for particle and liquid droplet comprising the heterogeneous droplet. four initial droplet volumes of 1, 2, 3 and 4 μl were considered when the diameter of the particle was 5 mm. The heterogeneous droplet was suspended with a rod at 20 cm away from the radiator which surface temperature was fixed to 473 K. Ambient temperature and relative humidity remained 296 K and 40 %, respectively, during the experiment. As the results, the evaporation rate of 4 μl case increased about 1.8 times compared with that of 1 μl case. The evaporation rate increased almost linearly with the volume ratio, and that is related closely with the contact surface between particle and water droplet. Contact surface area remained almost constantly with time, whereas it increased with the initial volume of water droplet. The energy from radiator can be accumulated at the contact surface at the side of particle, thereby intensifying the evaporation of water droplet because more heat transfers from particle to droplet through the contact surface. Consequently, the initial volume of liquid droplet is one of the influence factors on the evaporation rate in the heterogenous droplet.
Keywords
Contact surface area, Evaporation rate, Heat transfer, Heterogeneous droplet
IntroductionDrop evaporation is an important topic of interest because it plays a crucial role in many engineering applications such as spray drying, fuel injection into combustion engines, medical care, controlling the deposition of particles on solid surfaces, rapid cooling by drop wise heat exchange and also occurs in natural processes such as rain, fog, dew, snow formation and is used in meteorological estimates [1]. Nowadays, one of the most important directions of development in the field of fire extinguishing technologies is the improvement of heat exchange between extinguishing liquid and combustion products in flame zone and in its close vicinity [2]. Firstly, sprinkler systems are intended to either control the fire or to suppress the fire. For instances, sprinklers are used to control the heat release rate of the fire to prevent building structure collapse, and pre-wet the surrounding combustibles to prevent fire spread. Lastly, water curtain, which is a thermal and smoke control system in a fire hazard, is mainly used to diminish radiative heat transfer from fire and prevent spreading of smoke. In the development and deployment of practical systems, it is very important to understand how the flame extinction characteristics depend on droplet diameter, number density, and overall water loading. The traditional approach of droplet breakup when spraying extinguishing liquid received a lot of criticisms. In real practice the droplets of extinguishing liquid coalesce during their motion through flames. Moreover, soot particles in fire plume or ceiling jet flow have potential for adhering to th...