Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T12:19:37.659Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A kinetic theory of steady condensation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

P. N. Shankar
Affiliation:
Research and Development Center, General Electric Company, Schenectady, N.Y.

Abstract

This paper pertains to the steady condensation on to, or evaporation from, a liquid droplet suspended in a mixture of its vapour and an inert gas. The treatment is from a kinetic theory viewpoint. The Maxwell moment method is used with Lees’ two stream Maxwellian representations for the distribution functions, to obtain a closed form result valid through the whole range from free molecule to continuum. In the diffusion control limit the formula reduces to approximate results obtained by Maxwell, Fuchs and others. In the limit where no inert gas is present the formula reduces to a result obtained earlier by the author. The formulae presented here for the mass and energy flux can now be used to calculate the growth rate of very small droplets, under a wide range of conditions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1970 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Fuchs, N. 1934 E.T. Ph. 4, 7.
Jeans, J. 1954 Dynamical Theory of Gases. New York: Dover.
Kolodner, I. 1957 Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, N.Y.U., NYO-7980.
Langmuir, I. 1915 J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 37, 426.
Lees, L. 1959 GALCIT HRP Memo no. 51.
Lees, L. 1965 J. Soc. Indust. Appl. Math. 13, 278.
Maxwell, J. C. 1877 Encyclopedia Britannica, 2, 82.
Monchick, L., Reiss, H. 1954 J. Chem. Phys. 20, 1797.
Schäfer, K. 1932 Z. Physik, 77, 198.
Shankar, P. N. 1968 Ph.D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology. (To be published in Phys. Fluids.)
Shankar, P. N. 1969 GE Co. R & D Center Report no. 69-C-174.
Stefan, J. 1881 Wien, Ber. 83, 943.
Weinstein, H. G. 1965 Ph.D. Thesis, Princeton University.