Analysis of heat transfer and fluid flow in an evaporating sessile droplet for evaporative cooling applications

Abstract

Cooling is of critical importance for a number of fields, particularly in microelectronic devices and other miniaturized technology. The evaporation of the sessile liquid droplet facilitates the phase change of that liquid and provides cooling to the system, because a large amount of latent heat is required to change the phase. Evaporation takes place at the liquid-vapour interface, so to enhance the phase change process, it is essential to understand the interfacial energy transport mechanisms involved in transporting energy to the liquid-vapour interface from the solid substrate and the vapour surrounding. A series of experiments were conducted under different experimental conditions to understand interfacial energy transport in an evaporating sessile droplet. The experimental results demonstrate the effect of the ambient and substrate temperature on the evaporation process and the relative contributions of the conduction energy transport and other modes of energy transport in the total energy required for the phase change process.