Evaporation at a liquid surface due to jet impingement

Experiments were performed to determine mass transfer coefficients for evaporation from a water surf ace on which an air jet impinged. During the course of the experiments, parametric variations were made of the jet velocity and diameter, the separation distance between the jet origin and the water surface, the diameter of the water surface, and the degree of insulation of the water containment pan. It was found that for all of the investigated operating conditions, the dimensionless mass transfer coefficient varied with the 0.8 power of the jet Reynolds number. Furthermore, the transfer coefficient decreased linearly as the separation distance between the jet origin and the water surface increased, with the most significant decreases occurring at relatively small values of the surface-to-jet diameter ratio. At larger diameter ratios, the transfer coefficient was relatively insensitive to the separation. In general, the larger the diameter of the water surface, the lower the transfer coefficient. Comparisons with the literature showed that the dimensionless mass transfer coefficients for impingement on a liquid surf ace are lower than those for impingement on a solid surface.