Rarefied gas flow past a liquid droplet: Interplay between internal and external flows

Abstract

Experimental and theoretical studies on millimeter-sized droplets suggest that at low Reynolds number the difference between the drag force on a circulating water droplet and that on a rigid sphere is very small (less than 1%) (LeClair et al. 1972), which is not the case when the droplet is of micrometer/nanometer size. The goal of this article is to study the effects of internal motion within a spherical micro/nano droplet -- such that its diameter is comparable to the mean free path of the surrounding gas -- on the drag force and its overall dynamics. To this end, the problem of a slow rarefied gas flowing over an incompressible liquid droplet is investigated analytically by considering the internal motion of the liquid inside the droplet and also by accounting for kinetic effects in the gas. Detailed results for different values of the Knudsen number, the ratio of the thermal conductivities and the ratio of viscosities are presented for the pressure and temperature profiles inside and outside the liquid droplet. The results for the drag force obtained in the present work are in good agreement with the theoretical and experimental results existing in the literature.