Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A model for the prediction of drop wise evaporative cooling over hot solid surfaces is proposed for the case of radiant heat input. A detailed representation of the droplet shape during the transient is provided. The direct radiant contribution to the evaporative process is expressed as a liquid-vapor interfacial term and a constant heat absorption term within the liquid layer. The liquid layer is treated with a one dimensional heat conduction approximation justified by previous results and three sub models are used to describe it during the transient. A boundary element method for the solid thermal behavior, previously developed, is extended to this case. The results obtained from a closed-form solution, with simplified solid-liquid interfacial boundary conditions, are also included. Comparisons with the experimental data illustrate the adequacy of the model and the performance of the closed-form solution.