Optical Evaluation of the Effect of Curvature and Apparent Contact Angle in Droplet Condensate Removal
The microscale transport processes in droplet condensation and removal due to interfacial phenomena were studied. In particular, this paper concerns the movement of a condensed ethanol sessile drop into a concave liquid film in the corner. An improved image analyzing procedure was used to evaluate the curvatures and contact angles for both the drop and the concave corner meniscus at different condensation rates. The experimental results demonstrated that the condensate removal rate was a function of the curvature and contact angle, which self-adjust to give the necessary force field. The use of a dimensionless, shape dependent, force balance was demonstrated. For small drops, the intermolecular force was found to be much larger than the gravitational force and dominated droplet removal. Microscale pressure fields can be experimentally measured whereas interfacial temperature differences cannot.