Curvature dependence of the interfacial heat and mass transfer coefficients

K S Glavatskiy; D Bedeaux

doi:10.1063/1.4867285

Curvature dependence of the interfacial heat and mass transfer coefficients

J Chem Phys. 2014 Mar 14;140(10):104708. doi: 10.1063/1.4867285.

Authors

K S Glavatskiy¹, D Bedeaux¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Applied Sciences, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.

PMID: 24628197
DOI: 10.1063/1.4867285

Abstract

Nucleation is often accompanied by heat transfer between the surroundings and a nucleus of a new phase. The interface between two phases gives an additional resistance to this transfer. For small nuclei the interfacial curvature is high, which affects not only equilibrium quantities such as surface tension, but also the transport properties. In particular, high curvature affects the interfacial resistance to heat and mass transfer. We develop a framework for determining the curvature dependence of the interfacial heat and mass transfer resistances. We determine the interfacial resistances as a function of a curvature. The analysis is performed for a bubble of a one-component fluid and may be extended to various nuclei of multicomponent systems. The curvature dependence of the interfacial resistances is important in modeling transport processes in multiphase systems.