MOMENTUM AND HEAT-TRANSFER OF A TRANSLATING LIQUID DROPLET UNDER A THERMAL PLASMA ENVIRONMENT

Momentum and heat transfer associated with a translating liquid drople t with/without mass efflux from the droplet surface in a quiescent arg on thermal plasma environment is studied. A Chebyshev-Legendre spectra l method with a fractional time stepping method is expanded to treat t he compressible nature of the thermal plasma flow as well as the inter nal droplet incompressible flow. Steady-state solutions for the case o f plasma flow over a constant temperature solid sphere and incompressi ble flow over a droplet without mass efflux from the droplet are calcu lated and compared with previously published results. The interfacial phenomena are studied with interfacial physical properties. Transient solutions with droplet internal motion and convective heat transfer wi th/without mass efflux from the sphere surface are presented. Results indicate that uniform droplet internal temperature is established more quickly than that of a solid sphere in the plasma environment for no mass efflux case. Also, a symmetric interfacial velocity distribution develops along the droplet interface as Reynolds number increases. In case of mass efflux from the sphere, results show that the drag force and heat transfer rate are reduced in the presence of radial mass effl ux at the droplet surface.