On the influence of heat-induced evaporation over interfacial atomization driven by surface acoustic waves

In this work, the influence of evaporative flux over the atomization driven by surface acoustic waves (SAWs) of a Newtonian water drop is studied. The drop is placed on a heated substrate at constant temperature, higher than the saturation temperature at a given vapor pressure. In this manner, an interfacial temperature distribution arises along the drop free surface in terms evaporative mass flux and vapor recoil, which repercussion over aerosol size is studied by determining the asymptotic evolution equation governing the acoustically driven free surface. At such scenario, the connection between surface tension and temperature is also considered; thus, thermocapillary flow is incorporated into our drop model, described in terms of fundamental parameters, like the evaporation number, Marangoni number, and acoustic capillary number. Numerical solution of the evolution equation led us to obtain a simplified representation of the drop interfacial deformation mechanism, capable of predicting atomization and portraying the influence of evaporation over atomization. Subsequent analysis shows that the incorporation of evaporation at SAW atomization traduces in normal stresses counteracting the acoustic and thermocapillary effect, leading to the development of smaller drop aspect ratios with respect to the no-evaporative case. Being aware that the aerosol size is deeply related to the aspect ratio, we propose an analytical expression to estimate aerosol diameter under evaporative conditions. The results show that aspect ratio reduction leads to a decrement on aerosol size, up to two orders of magnitude, with respect to the no-evaporative case. Our study is a first approach providing insight about the importance of evaporation on aerosol regulation at SAW atomization.