A combined field approach for the two-way coupling problem in the liquid evaporation

Abstract

During liquid evaporation, the temperature of the liquid determines the saturated vapor pressure above it, which controls the evaporation rate and thus determines the liquid temperature through latent heat. Therefore, the equations for the vapor concentration in the atmosphere and for the temperature in the liquid are coupled and must be solved in an iterative manner. In the present paper, a combined field approach which unifies the coupled fields into one single field and thus makes the iteration unnecessary is proposed. The present work will be useful in scientific and industrial processes involving liquid evaporation and may also have more general applications to coupled field problems in which all the fields have the same governing equation.