Gas spreading on a heated wall wetted by liquid

Yves Garrabos (1, 2) , Carole Lecoutre-Chabot (1, 2) , John Hegseth (3) , Vadim Nikolayev (4, 2, 5) , Daniel Beysens (5, 2) , J.-P Delville (6)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 ESEME : Équipe du Supercritique pour l'Environnement, les Matériaux et l'Espace : Équipe commune CEA-CNRS (2000-2014)
3 Department of Physics [New Orleans]
4 SPEC - UMR3680 - Service de physique de l'état condensé
5 SBT - Service des Basses Températures
6 CPMOH - Centre de physique moléculaire optique et hertzienne

This study deals with a simple pure fluid whose temperature is slightly below its critical temperature and whose density is nearly critical, so that the gas and liquid phases coexist. Under equilibrium conditions, such a liquid completely wets the container wall and the gas phase is always separated from the solid by a wetting film. We report a striking change in the shape of the gas-liquid interface influenced by heating under weightlessness where the gas phase spreads over a hot solid surface showing an apparent contact angle larger than 90°. We show that the two-phase fluid is very sensitive to the differential vapor recoil force and give an explanation that uses this nonequilibrium effect. We also show how these experiments help to understand the boiling crisis, an important technological problem in high-power boiling heat exchange.

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Thermique [physics.class-ph]

Yves Garrabos, Carole Lecoutre-Chabot, John Hegseth, Vadim Nikolayev, Daniel Beysens, et al.. Gas spreading on a heated wall wetted by liquid. Physical Review E : Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 2001, 64 (5), 051602 (10 p.). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevE.64.051602⟩. ⟨hal-01261321⟩