Influence of Lateral Boundaries on Evaporative-Driven Convection Patterns

The evolution of convective patterns arising in evaporating liquid layers subject to a flow of inert gas depends on dynamical, thermo-physical and geometrical parameters. To the first group it is possible to associate the average velocity of the inert gas current and the total pressure of the gas phase — inert gas and vapor — insisting on the evaporating layer. The volatile liquid is also of importance in the convective patterns selection especially for what concerns the values of the latent heat of evaporation and of the cinematic viscosity. In this paper, we will focus on the influence that the lateral boundaries of the liquid pool have in the pattern selection process from the numerical point of view. A particular emphasis will be given to the heat transfer characteristics and to their dependence from both the liquid layer depth and the size of the evaporating surface.