Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) Simulations of Drop Evaporation: A Comprehensive Overview of Methods and Applications

The evaporation of micrometer and millimeter liquid drops, involving a liquid-to-vapor phase transition accompanied by mass and energy transfer through the liquid-vapor interface, is encountered in many natural and industrial processes as well as in numerous engineering applications. Therefore, understanding and predicting the dynamics of evaporating flows have become of primary importance. Recent efforts have been addressed using the method of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), which has proven to be very efficient in correctly handling the intrinsic complexity introduced by the multiscale nature of the evaporation process. This paper aims to provide an overview of published work on SPH-based simulations related to the evaporation of drops suspended in static and convective environments and impacting on heated solid surfaces. After a brief theoretical account of the main ingredients necessary for the modeling of drop evaporation, the fundamental aspects of SPH are revisited along with the various existing formulations that have been implemented to address the challenges imposed by the physics of evaporating flows. In the following sections, the paper summarizes the results of SPH-based simulations of drop evaporation and ends with a few comments on the limitations of the current state-of-the-art SPH simulations and future lines of research.