Heat and mass transfer across phase boundaries: Estimates of coupling coefficients

Abstract

Heat and mass transport across phase boundaries are central in many engineering problems. The systematic description offered by classical non-equilibrium thermodynamics theory, when extended to surfaces, gives the interaction between the two fluxes in terms of coupling coefficients. It is shown in this paper that these coupling coefficients are large. The few experimental and computational results that are available confirm this. Neglect of coupling coefficients, which is common in most models for surface transport, may lead to errors in the heat flux. We present values for the coupling coefficient in a one-component system in terms of the heat of transfer, as obtained from non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, kinetic theory and the integrated non-equilibrium van der Waals' square gradient model.