Convective evaporation of a water drop in a radiation field

A theoretical analysis is made of the convective evaporation of a water drop in the field of strong laser radiation of λ=10.6 μ. wavelength. A system of integrodifferential equations describing the evaporation process is obtained in the quasisteady approximation. The time dependences of the radius, surface temperature, and temperature at the center of a drop are obtained for the whole of the evaporation process. The upper and lower limits of the convective evaporation regime are derived for drops of different initial radius R₀. It is shown that if R₀ = 10 μ, the temperature of explosive boiling at the center of the drop is reached when the radiation power density is ~1.3×10⁴ W/cm².