MASS TRANSFER FROM AN AEROSOL DROPLET AT INTERMEDIATE PECLET NUMBERS

Abstract

A new experimental technique involving the use of optical resonances observed in an evaporating aerosol droplet suspended in an electrodynamic balance is developed in order to study mass transfer from a sphere. Previous theoretical and experimental results are compared with new data for the slow evaporation of dodecanol in nitrogen flowing at Reynolds numbers in the range 0.001 to 1.25. Mass transfer data for dodecanol and for hexadecane obtained with the “picobalance” are shown to be in good agreement with the singular perturbation expansion of Rimmer for Pe≤1.1, while the interpolation formula of Zhang and Davis best represents the results for Pe up to 4.

KEYWORDS:

• Mass transfer
• Aerosol
• Peclet number
• Optical resonances