Transient Cooling of Hot Porous and Nonporous Ceramic Solids by Droplet Evaporation

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation into transient cooling of low-thermal-conductivity porous and nonporous ceramic solids by individual water droplets. The initial surface temperature (T_s) of both solids ranged from 75 to 200°C. Both solids were instrumented with several surface and in-depth thermocouples and had the same thermal properties. This enabled investigation into the similarities and differences in the thermal behavior of porous and nonporous solids during droplet evaporation. The measured and theoretical contact temperatures, for both solids, were found to be in good agreement until they became equal to the boiling point of water (which occurs at an initial solid surface temperature of 164°C). Further increase in the initial solid surface temperature did not change the measured contact temperature. Instead, it became roughly constant at a value slightly greater than the boiling point of water. During the droplet evaporation process, surface and in-depth temperatures for the nonporous solid remain nearly constant, whereas for the porous solid there was a continuous decrease in these temperatures. A thermocouple in the porous matrix at the same location as that of the nonporous matrix cools faster under identical conditions, indicating an energy sink in the vicinity of the thermocouple. Also, evaporation time for the nonporous solid was found to be larger than that of the porous solid for the same droplet size and under the same conditions. These observations confirm that there is both in-depth and lateral penetration of water in the porous solid. The transient temperature measurements were used to determine the following quantities: (i) the recovery time (time required by the surface to recover to its initial temperature), and (ii) the size of surface and in-depth zones affected by the droplet. The instantaneous evaporation rate, and the instantaneous average evaporative heat flux for the nonporous solid, were also determined from video measurements of the droplet diameter on the solid surface and the transient temperature measurements. It was found that the average evaporative heat flux is higher for smaller droplets because of their smaller thickness on the hot surface.