화학공학소재연구정보센터
Atomization and Sprays, Vol.8, No.4, 471-478, 1998
Evaporation rates of agricultural spray material at low relative wind speeds
The evaporation rates of several agricultural spray materials are investigated as relative wind speed (between the droplet and ambient air) approaches zero. Laboratory studies show that application of the classical approach to interpreting these results overestimates the evaporation rate lambda by more than a factor of 2 in this speed regime, and call into question the functional forms of Sherwood number used previously to connect forced convection with free convection. In particular, a bounding curve may be developed as lambda/lambda(infinity) = 0.4 + 0.116 Re for Reynolds numbers Re < 5.16 (lambda(infinity) is the evaporation rate at Re = 5.16 and higher), This result suggests that Sherwood number approaches 0.8 (rather than 2) as relative wind speed (and Re) approach zero. Implications of this finding, particularly in agricultural spraying and peripherally in spray applications of complex mixtures, are examined.