Heat and mass transfer at condensate–vapor interfaces

Evaporation and condensation processes are intensely used in various fields of technology. Efforts to understand the features of film boiling of various liquids, primarily superfluid helium, inevitably lead to studying the strongly nonequilibrium processes of heat transfer from the heating surface through the vapor to the condensed phase. Theoretical studies of evaporation and condensation of single-component substances are briefly reviewed. Corresponding experimental data are analyzed and compared with calculations. We explore the important, yet unresolved and actively studied problems of condensation from vapor–gas media, the formulation of boundary conditions, and the application of molecular dynamics and kinetic theory methods to the study of heat and mass transfer at phase interfaces.