Influence of the thermophysical properties of a liquid coolant on characteristics of the 3D flows with phase transition

Regimes of the joint flows of the evaporating liquid and gas – vapor mixture induced by the action of a longitudinal temperature gradient in a three-dimensional channel of a rectangular cross-section in the terrestrial gravity field are studied in the present paper. The theoretical investigations are carried out on the basis of the partially invariant solution of rank 2 and defect 3 of the Boussinesq approximation of the Navier – Stokes equations. This solution allows one to correctly describe the two-layer flows with evaporation/condensation at the thermocapillary interface and to take into account the effects of thermodiffusion and diffusive thermal conductivity in the gas–vapor phase. The exact solution of governing equations are characterized by dependence of the velocity components on the transverse coordinates only. The functions of pressure, temperature and concentration of vapor linearly depend on the longitudinal coordinate and have the summands which are functions on transverse coordinates. The required functions satisfy the set of differential equations, boundary and interface conditions followed from the original three-dimensional problem statement and are found as a result of numerical technique. The presented solution of the evaporative convection problem is very contensive. It permits to specify the 3D flow regimes with different topology, thermal and concentration characteristics observed in physical experiments. Differences of flows in the ethanol–nitrogen, HFE-7100 – nitrogen and FC-72 – nitrogen systems are studied. Impact of the thermophysical properties of the working liquids on the basic characteristics of the fluid motions (hydrodynamical structure, temperature distribution, vapor content in the nitrogen, evaporative mass flow rate) is analyzed.