Simulation of water evaporation under natural conditions—A state-of-the-art overview

The phase change of water or other liquids is a process that takes part in many technical applications. The field of research is widely diversified with domains in energy technology, air conditioning, and even corrosion. The modalities of the phase change vary thereby. While condensation always occurs under the same condition, evaporation is much more complicated. The evaporation of a liquid can be forced by boiling or happens under natural condition. Boiling is a process with a high-energy flow and therefore a fast procedure. Evaporation under natural conditions is a much more time-intensive process but in researches of the wetting and as a result the damage of daily products more relevant. This contribution analyses different CFD-tools with regard to their ability to simulate the evaporation of water under natural conditions and gives an overview of the state-of-the-art for a few mesh and meshfree methods. The mesh-based CFD showed varying results from unsuitable models to detailed calculations. The mesh-free CFD is dependent on an artificial model due to some methodological assumptions. As a conclusion, the use of an artificial model is recommended in order to be able to generate a usable result and evaluate the benefit of countermeasures.