Internal boiling and superheating in vaporizing multicomponent droplets

The vaporization and combustion of a miscible multicomponent droplet in a quiescent atmosphere is analyzed by assuming transient‐diffusive transport within the droplet, quasi steady diffusive‐convective transport in the gas phase, and ideal solution behavior for the mixture. Results on the vaporization of a binary droplet show that owing to the significant liquid phase diffusional resistance, the vaporization process approximately consists of an initial transient regime, an intermediate, diffusion limited, almost quasi steady regime, and a final volatility limited regime. It is further demonstrated that the entrapment of the volatile components within the rapidly heated droplet interior may lead to the initiation of either homogeneous or heterogeneous nucleation, which can result in the fragmentation of the parent droplet with the internal pressure buildup.