Date of Award

4-2020

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Parviz Merati

Second Advisor

Dr. Tianshu Liu

Third Advisor

Dr. Christopher Cho

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Dewei Qi

Keywords

Evaporation rate, free water surface

Abstract

This work aims to perform an experiment in the laboratory and investigate the effect of the wave steepness, airflow velocity, air relative humidity, air temperature, and water surface temperature on the evaporation rate from still and wavy water surface. In this investigation, the experimental results are used to quantify an evaporation rate from a still and wavy water surface under different convection regimes that are free, mixed, and forced convection under turbulent airflow conditions. Empirical correlations are also derived using the experimental results based on modified Dalton’s law and Similarity method (analogy between mass and heat transfer equation). In this experiment, the applicability of two of these approaches (similarity theory and Dalton’s law) to predict the evaporation models are investigated. The empirical correlations are obtained in this experiment for natural, mixed, and forced convection under turbulent airflow conditions based on modified Dalton’s law and are verified by comparing with 12 empirical correlations found in the literature. The laboratory measurements are made using the large wave tank-wind tunnel combination in which both wind speed and wave parameters are controlled.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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