Dynamics of evaporation and cooling of a water droplet during the early stage of depressurization

This paper reports an experimental and numerical study of evaporation and cooling of a water droplet during the early stage of depressurization in a test vessel. During the experiment, a distilled water droplet was suspended on a thermocouple, which was also used to measure the droplet center temperature, and the droplet surface temperature was captured by an infrared thermograph. Experimental data indicated a large temperature difference within the droplet during the early stage of depressurization. A thermodynamic analysis of the experimental data found that the pressure reduction was not fast enough to induce liquid superheating and thus equilibrium evaporation was expected. A mathematical model was then constructed to simulate the droplet evaporation process. The model solves one-dimensional heat conduction equation for the temperature distribution inside the water droplet, with the convective heat transfer inside the droplet simplified through an effective conductivity factor. A simplified treatment was introduced to quantify the convective evaporation due to air movement and droplet swing induced by sudden opening of the electro-magnetic valve and the following air exiting. The model-predictions agree well with the measured temperature data, demonstrating the soundness of the present model.