Laminar condensation heat and mass transfer to a drop moving at intermediate or high Reynolds number

The hydrodynamics and the heat and mass transport associated with condensation on a moving drop were analytically and numerically investigated. The drop is surrounded by an infinite expanse of a mixture of saturated vapor and a noncondensable gas. The Reynolds number of drop translation is assumed to be in the laminar range (0 Re 500). The transport external to the drop is described by a quasi-steady model, while the transport inside is taken to be fully transient. The elliptic partial differential equations governing the gas phase transport, are solved by a finite difference numerical procedure. The transient heating of the drop inside is analyzed by a partly analytical scheme. For high Re motion, an alternate formulation based upon the boundary layer theory is also presented for transport in the gaseous phrase. A similarity solution valid in the vicinity of the front stagnation region and an approximate series solution for the entire boundary layer region are obtained through the boundary layer analysis.