Time-averaged approach to the dewetting problem at evaporation

Abstract

Abstract Dewetting of liquid films on solid surfaces in the presence of evaporation is a common phenomenon and has been studied by many researchers. The previous numerical approach has revealed that evaporation accelerates the dewetting speed of the triple contact line and established correlations between the dewetting speed and the surface wettability and superheating. However, such a numerical calculation is time- and resource-consuming. We examine dewetting physics and propose a time-averaged approach based on the multiscale theory. The new approach averages the dewetting process over time and consists of only several algebraic equations, making the problem easier to solve. It can produce time-averaged values of essential quantities, such as the dewetting speed and contact angle as a function of superheating, which agrees with the previous numerical results. This simple approach is valuable for many applications, such as modeling pulsating heat pipes and describing the microlayer dynamics under growing vapor bubbles in nucleate boiling.