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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

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References

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