A three-region conduction-controlled rewetting analysis by the Heat Balance Integral Method

Conduction-controlled rewetting of two-dimensional objects is analyzed by the Heat Balance Integral Method (HBIM) considering three distinct regions: a dry region ahead of wet front, the sputtering region immediately behind the wet front and a continuous film region further upstream. The HBIM yields solutions for wet front velocity, sputtering length and temperature field with respect to wet front. Employing this method, it is seen that heat transfer mechanism is dependent upon two temperature parameters. One of them characterizes the initial wall temperature while the other specifies the range of temperature for sputtering region. Additionally, the mechanism of heat transfer is found to be dependent on two Biot numbers comprising a convective heat transfer in the wet region and a boiling heat transfer in the sputtering region. The present solution exactly matches with the one-dimensional analysis of K.H. Sun, G.E. Dix, C.L. Tien [Cooling of a very hot vertical surface by falling liquid film, ASME J. Heat Transf. 96 (1974) 126–131] for low Biot numbers. Good agreement with experimental results is also observed.