Take-off of small Leidenfrost droplets

Franck Celestini (1) , Thomas Frisch (2) , Yves Pomeau (3)

1 LPMC - Laboratoire de physique de la matière condensée
2 INLN - Institut Non Linéaire de Nice Sophia-Antipolis
3 Department of Mathematics [University of Arizona]

We put in evidence the unexpected behaviour of Leidenfrost droplets at the later stage of their evaporation. We predict and observe that, below a critical size $R_l$, the droplets spontaneously take-off due to the breakdown of the lubrication regime. We establish the theoretical relation between the droplet radius and its elevation. We predict that the vapour layer thickness increases when the droplets become smaller. A satisfactory agreement is found between the model and the experimental results performed on droplets of water and of ethanol.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Franck Celestini, Thomas Frisch, Yves Pomeau. Take-off of small Leidenfrost droplets. Physical Review Letters, 2012, 109 (3), pp.034501. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.034501⟩. ⟨hal-00711748v2⟩