Evaporation of micro-sized droplets on a heated silicon substrate

Abstract

The present research is devoted to the evaporation of micro-sized water droplets on a smooth silicon substrate heated from below. The study of this process is relevant for the development of spray cooling systems. Due to the extreme complexity of this phenomenon the mechanism of spray cooling is not fully understood yet. In our experiment the silicon substrate is open to the atmosphere. Evaporation of sessile droplets with the size of the order of 10 μm is studied at the substrate temperature ranging from 23 to 100°C. A shadow method coupled with a high-speed camera is used in the experiment to determine the geometric characteristics of the droplet profile and to calculate the droplet evaporation rate.