A Theoretical Model for Evaporation of Leidenfrost Drop for Prediction of Vapor Layer Thickness under the Drop

In this paper, a theoretical model is proposed for Leidenfrost droplet evaporation by solving the mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations. This model involves a set of four equations, of which the values of vapor layer thickness, evaporation rate on the lower surface of the drop, the volume of evaporating droplet, and temperature distribution in vapor layer are obtained. This set of equation is solved with Fortran code by the predictor-corrector method. The main unknown value in these equations is the vapor layer thickness, which is predicted in every step of simulation and corrected by the balance of forces that act on the drop. In this study, the upper surface of the drop, where contacts with air and the lower surface of droplet, where contacts with the vapor layer are predicted with high accuracy by solving the Young- Laplace equation. The vapor layer thickness obtained from the proposed model is compared with experimental data and encouraging agreement is observed.