The effect of electrostatic forces on the evaporation of liquid droplets

The current study seeks to understand the effects of electrostatic forces on liquid droplets deposited on uniformly heated substrates. The electrostatic forces arise due to interactions between charges in the substrate and ions in the liquid in the absence of an electric field. The mathematical model uses an axisymmetric thin film approximation considering the effects of surface tension, evaporation into pure vapor, thermocapillarity, gravity, London-van der Waals disjoining pressure, Marangoni forces, as well as electrostatic forces. The electrostatic forces are added by incorporating the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation and measured by the electric Weber number. We find that increasing the electric Weber number leads to a decrease in evaporation time as the interface shape and therefore evaporative flux changes. We would like to acknowledge the generous contribution of NASA in funding this research.