Numerical simulation of single droplet growing and moving in a heat transfer environment with small size

When the moist air is cooled to supersaturation state, the water vapor in the moist air will condense into droplets on cooling surface, which will have an effect on the heat transfer ability of cooling surface and the flow resistance of fluid flow passing the cooling, so it is especially important to study the growing and moving of droplets on the cooling surface. This paper developed a numerical model to account the droplet growing and moving, then, the growing and moving characteristics of an individual droplet are studied under some working conditions. Under some studied conditions the maximum mass of the droplet is 2.31 × 10^-5 mg; the average mass growing rate is 0.00909 mg/s; the average moving velocity is 0.176 m/s. The large receding contact angle and low inlet air velocity are both more favorable for the droplet growing and moving. The high inlet air relative humidity is more favorable for the droplet moving and growing.