Evaporation-driven vapour microflows: analytical solutions from moment methods

Abstract

Macroscopic models based on moment equations are developed to describe the transport of mass and energy near the phase boundary between a liquid and its rarefied vapour due to evaporation and hence, in this study, condensation. For evaporation from a spherical droplet, analytic solutions are obtained to the linearised equations from the Navier–Stokes–Fourier, regularised 13-moment and regularised 26-moment frameworks. Results are shown to approach computational solutions to the Boltzmann equation as the number of moments are increased, with good agreement for Knudsen number ${\lesssim}1$, whilst providing clear insight into non-equilibrium phenomena occurring adjacent to the interface.