Diffusive and convective vaporization of irradiated droplets

A generalized vaporization model is developed which describes the evaporation of a spherical liquid droplet irradiated by a high-intensity, pulsed laser beam. Diffusive and convective transport processes are included in the hydrodynamic description of a two-component system composed of droplet vapor and ambient gas. Numerical solutions to the two-component hydrodynamic equations are obtained which illustrate the ability of the model to describe both isobaric vaporization, and convective vaporization with the production of shock waves.