| This main objective of this research is to understand the liquid droplet evaporation inside the plasma at low pressure. A mathematical model has been developed which describes the single component droplet evaporation. This model differs from higher pressure models in that it assumes the mean free path is greater than the droplet diameter and therefore allows one to assume that the transport is non-diffusive. The model accounts for both particle and heat flux into and out of the droplet [by collisions with gas molecules, evaporation and the return of molecules (freeze-on)]. In addition, it includes the heat flux to the droplet surface due to the electrons and ions inside the plasma. The model runs in MATLAB and indicates that the time required for the droplet to fully evaporate is a function of the background pressure, wall temperature, initial droplet size, electron temperature and plasma density. The single component droplet evaporation model is extended to understand evaporation of large number of droplets occurring simultaneously and independently. Single component droplet evaporation is also extended to understand two component droplet evaporation inside plasma at low pressure. This thesis presents and discusses the mathematical model developed and various results obtained from the model. |
