MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATION OF THIN FILM EVAPORATION OF LENNARD-JONES LIQUID

Evaporation of a thin liquid film is of significant fundamental importance for both science and engineering applications. This work investigates the evaporation of a thin liquid argon layer into vacuum employing molecular dynamics simulation based on the Lennard-Jones potential. The simulation results demonstrate that the net evaporation rate of an ultra-thin liquid film into vacuum in a closed system may be modeled by the balance of evaporation and condensation based on the Schrage model. The evaporation/condensation coefficient and the non-Maxwellian factor may thus be evaluated. As for the open system, the simulation results demonstrate a constant evaporation rate for each leakage probability. The corresponding evaporation heat transfer coefficient is very high and increases with increase in leakage percentage. Such a high heat transfer coefficient demonstrates very high heat transfer capability of evaporation from an ultra-thin liquid film.