2. Criterion formulation

In the context of dynamic, adiabatic wetting phenomena, analytic solutions of quasi-static, contact-line motion have resulted in constitutive laws being proposed connecting an apparent contact angle $\theta _{app}$ (the macroscopically observed interfacial slope) with the microscopic contact angle $\theta _0$ (described below) and the capillary number $Ca$ (Snoeijer et al. Reference Snoeijer, Andreotti, Delon and Fermigier2007; Bonn et al. Reference Bonn, Eggers, Indekeu, Meunier and Rolley2009), viz

(2.1)\begin{equation} \theta_{app} = f(Ca,\theta_0). \end{equation}

The capillary number is given as

(2.2)\begin{equation} Ca = \frac{\mu_l U_{CL}}{\sigma}, \end{equation}

with $U_{CL}$ being the contact-line velocity along the surface ($\textrm {m}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$), $\sigma$ the surface tension ($\textrm {N}\ \textrm {m}^{-1}$) and $\mu _l$ the liquid dynamic viscosity ($\textrm {Pa}\ \textrm {s}$). The microscopic contact angle is conventionally assumed to be constant (i.e. any hysteresis effects are neglected), and to result from a force balance at the triple line (Snoeijer et al. Reference Snoeijer, Andreotti, Delon and Fermigier2007). A prominent example of (2.1) is the Cox–Voinov law, written with the dewetting sign convection (Voinov Reference Voinov1976; Cox Reference Cox1986) as

(2.3)\begin{equation} \theta_0^3-\theta_{app}^3 = \frac{\textit{Ca}}{A}. \end{equation}

This law has been shown to represent measured experimental data in a variety of configurations: for example in droplet sliding (Le Grand et al. Reference Le Grand, Daerr and Limat2005), spreading (Kant et al. Reference Kant, Hazel, Dowling, Thompson and Juel2017) and spreading with solidification (de Ruiter et al. Reference de Ruiter, Colinet, Brunet, Snoeijer and Gelderblom2017). The constant $A$ is unknown a priori and is usually determined by a fit to experimental data. Equation (2.3) was also found to hold in the presence of liquid-to-vapour phase change by Janeček & Nikolayev (Reference Janeček and Nikolayev2013) from a numerical solution of the lubrication equations, coupled with steady-state one-dimensional heat conduction. However, in this context, the equation takes the form (Fourgeaud et al. Reference Fourgeaud, Ercolani, Duplat, Gully and Nikolayev2016)

(2.4)\begin{equation} \theta_{mr}^3(\Delta T,\textit{Ca}=0)-\theta_{app}^3 = \frac{\textit{Ca}}{A}, \end{equation}

where $\theta _{mr}(\Delta T,{Ca}=0)$ is the static contact angle for the volatile liquid under non-isothermal conditions, which takes into account the effect of phase change in the microregion on the interfacial slope. We will denote this quantity by the symbol $\theta _{mr}$ and, for brevity, refer to it as the non-adiabatic contact angle. The actual value of $\theta _{mr}$ can be non-zero, even for fully wetting liquids (Raj et al. Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012; Fourgeaud et al. Reference Fourgeaud, Ercolani, Duplat, Gully and Nikolayev2016; Schweikert et al. Reference Schweikert, Sielaff and Stephan2019). Note that (2.4) essentially states that the effect of phase change ($\Delta T$) and contact-line motion (Ca) on the apparent contact angle can be decoupled (Janeček & Nikolayev Reference Janeček and Nikolayev2013; Fourgeaud et al. Reference Fourgeaud, Ercolani, Duplat, Gully and Nikolayev2016).

A wetting transition as $\theta _{app}\rightarrow 0$ has already been conjectured by Derjaguin & Levi (Reference Derjaguin and Levi1964), analytically derived by Eggers (Reference Eggers2005) and numerically confirmed by Snoeijer et al. (Reference Snoeijer, Andreotti, Delon and Fermigier2007). Note that, in this last paper, it was shown that, at the transition point, the solutions undergo a series of saddle-node bifurcations, featuring a non-monotonically shaped film, and asymptotically tending to an infinitely long flat film behind the contact line. Under the condition $\theta _{app}=0$, (2.4) immediately gives, at the transition

(2.5)\begin{equation} \theta_{mr}^3 = \frac{{Ca}}{A}. \end{equation}

Rearranging, and using (2.2), we obtain a corresponding relation for the critical contact-line velocity as

(2.6)\begin{equation} U_{CL,{crit}}=\frac{\sigma}{\mu_l}A\theta_{mr}^3, \end{equation}

and we identify the condition $U_{CL}\geqslant U_{CL,{crit}}$ with liquid-film (i.e. microlayer) formation due to dewetting transition.

For the value of $A$, results of sliding droplet experiments suggest a value of $A\approx 4.5\times 10^{-3}$ for water (Podgorski, Flesselles & Limat Reference Podgorski, Flesselles and Limat2001; Winkels et al. Reference Winkels, Peters, Evangelista, Riepen, Daerr, Limat and Snoeijer2011). This value is considered to be anomalously low, and possibly reflective of the occurrence of non-hydrodynamic dissipative mechanisms near the contact line (de Ruiter et al. Reference de Ruiter, Colinet, Brunet, Snoeijer and Gelderblom2017). For sliding droplets, constituted by a silicone oil–water mixture, a value of $A\approx 10^{-2}$ has been proposed (Podgorski et al. Reference Podgorski, Flesselles and Limat2001; Le Grand et al. Reference Le Grand, Daerr and Limat2005; Winkels et al. Reference Winkels, Peters, Evangelista, Riepen, Daerr, Limat and Snoeijer2011), essentially independently of the degree of oil–water mixing. Generally, the choice of $A$ remains a source of uncertainty in (2.6), as it is a parameter dependent on properties of the test fluid, surface characteristics, solid–fluid interactions as well as on the particular geometry of the configuration. At the same time, theoretical predictions from the original Cox–Voinov law give (Bonn et al. Reference Bonn, Eggers, Indekeu, Meunier and Rolley2009)

(2.7)\begin{equation} A =\frac{1}{9\ln (S)}= \frac{1}{9\ln\left(l/a\right)}, \end{equation}

where $S$ is a ratio of two scales: $a$ is a representative nanoscopic length scale. Under adiabatic conditions, it can be taken to be the typical molecule size, of the order of 0.1–1 nm (Podgorski et al. Reference Podgorski, Flesselles and Limat2001; Le Grand et al. Reference Le Grand, Daerr and Limat2005; Winkels et al. Reference Winkels, Peters, Evangelista, Riepen, Daerr, Limat and Snoeijer2011), or the slip length, a typical value for very smooth surfaces being 10 nm (Janeček & Nikolayev Reference Janeček and Nikolayev2013). In the context of microlayer formation, $a$ would be a typical scale of the microregion, of the order of 10–100 nm (Janeček Reference Janeček2012; Janeček & Nikolayev Reference Janeček and Nikolayev2013; Fourgeaud et al. Reference Fourgeaud, Ercolani, Duplat, Gully and Nikolayev2016), while $l$ represents a macroscopic dimension, dependent on the problem in question. The described configuration is summarised schematically in figure 3.

Figure 3.

A visualisation of the film profile with a receding contact line. A dewetting transition occurs as the interfacial slope $\theta _{app}\rightarrow 0$ at $x=l$, since $U_{CL}\geqslant U_{CL,crit}$. The inset (left) shows schematically the effect of phase change on the interfacial slope in the microregion. Length scales $l$ and $a$ from (2.7) are indicated.

3. Application of the criterion to experimental data on plate dewetting

With their experiments, Schweikert et al. (Reference Schweikert, Sielaff and Stephan2019) were able to produce a regime map of microlayer formation for the fluorocarbon FC-72 based on the values of the wall superheat $\Delta T$ (up to 5 K) and a critical plate withdrawal velocity of up to $45\ \textrm {mm}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$ (figure 9 in their paper). We have deduced the transition criterion directly from this figure to be (the plate-withdrawal velocity corresponding to the contact-line velocity)

(3.1)\begin{equation} U_{CL,{crit}}^{Schweikert}\ [\textrm{m}\ \textrm{s}^{{-}1}] = 3.12\times10^{{-}3} \Delta T^{1.44}. \end{equation}

By equating the plate-withdrawal velocity with the contact-line velocity, we have assumed that the principal effect of superheat in this experiment was to change the non-adiabatic contact angle, presuming the impact of phase change on the contact-line velocity to be minor, as indicated by Fourgeaud et al. (Reference Fourgeaud, Ercolani, Duplat, Gully and Nikolayev2016). Therefore, to apply our criterion to these data, we converted the applied superheats ($\Delta T$) into $\theta _{mr}$ values. Although this could be done numerically with the help of a microregion model, such models do not generally predict the $\theta _{mr}=f(\Delta T)$ relationship accurately, as can be seen from the attempts by Raj et al. (Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012) and Janeček & Nikolayev (Reference Janeček and Nikolayev2013), especially for values of the superheat corresponding to the experimental conditions considered here. At the same time, FC-72 is known to be a non-polar liquid, fully wetting on the majority of surfaces (Reed & Mudawar Reference Reed and Mudawar1997; Raj et al. Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012; Schweikert et al. Reference Schweikert, Sielaff and Stephan2019), and thus $\theta _{mr}$ should be essentially independent of the surface material in question. Indeed, even if a microregion model had been used, the surface would be characterised only by the Hamaker constant (Israelachvili Reference Israelachvili2011; Raj et al. Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012), and the overall microregion model results would then be ‘very insensitive even to large variations of more than one order of magnitude’ of this constant (Raj et al. Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012), erasing any differences between the materials comprising these surfaces.

For this reason, we consider the experimental, non-adiabatic contact angle values for FC-72 originally measured for copper by Raj et al. (Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012) to be also applicable to the experimental conditions of Schweikert et al. (Reference Schweikert, Sielaff and Stephan2019), in spite of the difference in surface material (i.e. copper vs chromium, both found to be essentially perfectly wetted by FC-72 under adiabatic conditions by the respective authors). By using uncertainty-weighted, least-squares regression, together with a fit equation of the form

(3.2)\begin{equation} \theta_{mr} = C_0 \Delta T^{C_1}, \end{equation}

we recover the relation (see figure 4):

(3.3)\begin{equation} \theta_{mr,fit} \ [^{{\circ}}] = 9.37 \Delta T^{0.54}. \end{equation}

Evidently, much better agreement with experimental data has been achieved with our relation than with the microregion model-based solution given by Raj et al. (Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012), namely

(3.4)\begin{equation} \theta_{mr}^{\textit{Raj}}\ [^{{\circ}}] = 17.4 \Delta T^{0.323}, \end{equation}

especially in the interval of interest here, $\Delta T\leqslant 5\ \textrm {K}$. In order to incorporate the effect of experimental uncertainties into our model, we also complement the best-estimate fit with two bounding predictions, obtained by performing unweighted least-squares regression on the data (i) reduced by one standard deviation ($\theta ^{low}_{{mr}}$) and (ii) increased by one standard deviation ($\theta ^{high}_{{mr}}$). The resulting fitted relations

(3.5)\begin{gather} \theta^{low}_{mr,fit} \ [^{{\circ}}] = 6.54 \Delta T^{0.65}, \end{gather}

(3.6)\begin{gather}\theta^{high}_{mr,fit} \ [^{{\circ}}] = 13.7 \Delta T^{0.42}, \end{gather}

are also shown in figure 4.

Figure 4.

Experimentally measured values of the non-adiabatic contact angle of FC-72 on copper (Raj et al. Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012) compared with a best-fit correlation (3.3), two bounding fitted correlations (3.5) and (3.6) and the results of the microregion model of Raj et al. (Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012), (3.4).

Introducing (3.3) into (3.1), we obtain

(3.7)\begin{equation} U_{CL,{crit}}^{Schweikert}\ [\textrm{m}\ \textrm{s}^{{-}1}] = 8.00\times10^{{-}6} \theta_{mr,fit}^{2.67}. \end{equation}

The power-law dependence is remarkably close to the cubic relation predicted by the Cox–Voinov law (2.6), a fact further illustrated in figure 5, which shows the experimental results of Schweikert et al. (Reference Schweikert, Sielaff and Stephan2019) converted to $U_{CL,{crit}}-\theta _{mr}$ space via (3.3). Here, we have introduced a fit using (2.6), and a very good delineation of the two regions has thereby been achieved. As can be seen, some discrepancies persist for smaller values of $\theta _{mr}$, for which the conversion of wall superheat $\Delta T$ to $\theta _{mr}$ is the least precise (see figure 4); furthermore, any influence of heater surface material characteristics would be most significant for such small superheat values.

Figure 5.

Experimental data on regime transition obtained by Schweikert et al. (Reference Schweikert, Sielaff and Stephan2019), with superheat values converted to non-adiabatic contact angle values using (3.3), and compared to a fit according to (2.6).

From this fit, it is possible to deduce the (assumed constant) value of $A$ in (2.6) to be 0.031. Similarly, by considering the two bounding correlations (3.5) and (3.6) instead of (3.3), we have obtained $A_{low}$ as 0.059 and $A_{high}$ as 0.016. These values are within the range of the typical order of magnitude estimates of $A$, as discussed in § 2. Due to the logarithmic relation between $A$ and $S$ and large spread in $A$ caused by the uncertainties in the contact angle measurement of Raj et al. (Reference Raj, Kunkelmann, Stephan, Plawsky and Kim2012), significance of any point estimate of the ratio of scales $S$ in (2.7) would be small and thus it is not reported here.

Based on the arguments given in this section, we consider our correlation, (2.6), to represent the experimentally observed regime transition of Schweikert et al. (Reference Schweikert, Sielaff and Stephan2019) sufficiently well to be adopted in this study.

4. Extension of theory to nucleate boiling

In the case of nucleate boiling, the contact-line velocity is no longer an independent parameter, as it was in the case of plate withdrawal; instead, it is related to the macroscopic bubble expansion. Without the presence of a microlayer, bubbles are observed to remain essentially of the spherical-cap type during growth (Son et al. Reference Son, Dhir and Ramanujapu1999; Fischer et al. Reference Fischer, Herbert, Slomski, Stephan and Oechsner2014) and, therefore, in a first approximation

(4.1)\begin{equation} U_{CL}\approx\sin(\theta_{mr})U_{BG}, \end{equation}

in which $U_{BG}$ is the radial bubble expansion velocity and the prefactor $\sin (\theta _{mr})$ results from geometrical considerations (see figure 6). With reference to the figure and denoting $R(t)$ (m) as the bubble radius as a function of time $t$ (s), the radial contact-line position $R_{CL}$ can be expressed as

(4.2)\begin{equation} R_{CL}=R\sin(\theta_{mr}), \end{equation}

and its velocity on the surface as

(4.3)\begin{equation} U_{CL}=\frac{\text{d}R_{CL}}{\text{d}t}\approx\sin(\theta_{mr})\frac{\text{d}R}{\text{d}t}=\sin(\theta_{mr})U_{BG}. \end{equation}

Figure 6.

Schematic representation of spherical-cap bubble growth.

As our goal is to compare our criterion to the results of incompressible DNS, we will consider bubble growth solely in the heat-transfer-limited regime (Faghri & Zhang Reference Faghri and Zhang2006). The alternative limiting situation, i.e. growth in the inertial regime, is discussed in § 4.3. For bubbles growing in uniformly superheated liquids (valid also if the thickness of the thermal boundary layer is sufficiently large compared to the bubble radius), the bubble growth in the heat-transfer-limited regime is given by (Scriven Reference Scriven1959)

(4.4)\begin{equation} R(t) = 2B(\Delta T) \sqrt{\alpha_l t}, \end{equation}

in which $\alpha _l$ is the liquid thermal diffusivity ($\textrm {m}^{2}\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$),

(4.5)\begin{equation} \alpha_l=\frac{\lambda_l}{\rho_l C_{p,l}}, \end{equation}

where $\Delta T$ is the applied superheat (K), $\lambda _l$ the liquid thermal conductivity ($\textrm {W}\ \textrm {mK}^{-1}$), $\rho _l$ the liquid density ($\textrm {kg}\ \textrm {m}^{-3}$), $C_{p,l}$ the liquid specific isobaric heat capacity ($\textrm {J}\ \textrm {kg}\ \textrm {K}^{-1}$) and $B$ (–) is a growth constant, dependent on $\Delta T$. Equation (4.4) can be rearranged to eliminate the explicit dependence on time into the form

(4.6)\begin{equation} U_{BG}=\frac{\text{d}R}{\text{d}t}=2B^2\frac{\alpha_l}{R}. \end{equation}

Using this expression, we immediately recover the microlayer formation criterion for bubble growth in the heat-transfer-limited regime from the condition $U_{CL}\geqslant U_{CL,{crit}}$ as

(4.7)\begin{equation} \frac{\theta_{mr}^3}{\sin(\theta_{mr})} \leqslant \frac{2B^2}{A}\frac{\mu_l\alpha_l}{\sigma}\frac{1}{R} = 18 B^2 \ln (S)\frac{\mu_l\alpha_l}{\sigma}\frac{1}{R}, \end{equation}

with $A$ and $S$ represented according to (2.7). Although multiple (approximate) expressions exist for the growth constant $B$ (Fritz & Ende Reference Fritz and Ende1936; Forster & Zuber Reference Forster and Zuber1954; Plesset & Zwick Reference Plesset and Zwick1954), the quadratic dependence on $B$ evidenced in (4.7) signifies that it must be evaluated carefully. For this reason, we utilise the full solution of Scriven (Reference Scriven1959), in which $B$ can be obtained as a root of the expression

(4.8)\begin{align} \frac{\rho_l}{\rho_v}\frac{C_{p,l}\Delta T}{L+(C_{p,l}-C_{p,v})\Delta T} = 2B^2\int_{0}^1\exp\left[{-}B^2\left((1-s)^{{-}2}-2\left(1-\frac{\rho_v}{\rho_l}\right)s-1\right)\right]\textrm{d}s, \end{align}

where $\rho _v$ ($\textrm {kg}\ \textrm {m}^{-3}$) is the vapour density, $L$ the latent heat of vaporisation ($\textrm {J}\ \textrm {kg}^{-1}$) and $C_{p,v}$ ($\textrm {J}\ \textrm {kg}\ \textrm {K}^{-1}$) the vapour specific isobaric heat capacity. The applicability of Scriven's solution to bubble growth on a heat-transfer surface remains open to discussion, since the solution is based on the assumptions of an unbounded domain in a uniformly superheated liquid. Nevertheless, Cole & Shulman (Reference Cole and Shulman1966) have pointed out that if the liquid surrounding the bubble is superheated to the temperature of the wall, this description of the bubble growth would still be justified. As we are considering here the initial stages of bubble growth, in which the bubble is much smaller than the thickness of the thermal boundary layer, the assumption of uniform superheat is considered to be acceptable. Note that, for water under atmospheric conditions, the growth constant $B$ calculated according to (4.8) is approximately equal to the Jakob number Ja (–) given as

(4.9)\begin{equation} \textit{Ja}=\frac{\rho_l C_{p,l}\Delta T}{\rho_v L}. \end{equation}

This is illustrated by the red line in figure 7.

Figure 7.

Scriven growth constant, (4.8), and its normalised value as functions of the Jakob number for water under atmospheric conditions.

According to our criterion, (4.7), a strong (inverse) dependence on the bubble radius $R$ can be observed. By rearranging the equation in the form

(4.10)\begin{equation} R_{crit}\leqslant 18B^2\ln (S) \frac{\mu_l\alpha_l}{\sigma}\frac{\sin(\theta_{mr})}{\theta_{mr}^3}, \end{equation}

we can interpret the resulting relation as a definition of a maximal bubble radius for which interfacial deformation due to the mismatch between macroscopic expansion and contact-line dynamics may be observed. In a broader sense, (4.10) determines those bubble sizes for which hydrodynamic effects contribute to microlayer expansion, rather than to its destruction. In other words, the microlayer expands with bubble growth if $R \leqslant R_{crit}$, and contracts otherwise. Indeed, a microlayer formed during nucleate boiling results in strong deformation of the overall bubble shape (Chen, Haginiwa & Utaka Reference Chen, Haginiwa and Utaka2017; Yabuki & Nakabeppu Reference Yabuki and Nakabeppu2017), and the appearance of which indicates a significant departure from equilibrium. As such, the presence of a microlayer should be seen as a dynamic phenomenon with a variety of possible outcomes, ranging from its fully developed formation, usually observed in experiments, to the transitory occurrence of highly deformed vapour/liquid interfaces. We further discuss implications of (4.10) in appendix A.

4.1. Comparisons with reference DNS data

We are not aware of any comprehensive experimental study of microlayer formation which would have produced data similar to those of Schweikert et al. (Reference Schweikert, Sielaff and Stephan2019) from their plate-withdrawal tests. However, the work of Urbano et al. (Reference Urbano, Tanguy, Huber and Colin2018) includes a set of predictions generated using DNS, showcasing the ability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a tool to study the influence of individual, physical parameters on complex processes such as nucleate boiling. The DNS solver used in their work has been rigorously verified, grid convergence studies have been performed and code predictions have been validated for a variety of phase-change configurations, including nucleate boiling (e.g. Huber et al. Reference Huber, Tanguy, Sagan and Colin2017; Urbano, Tanguy & Colin Reference Urbano, Tanguy and Colin2019). Thus, we consider the results of Urbano et al. (Reference Urbano, Tanguy, Huber and Colin2018) to represent a trustworthy DNS database, against which we can compare our findings.

In their study, the referenced authors examined microlayer formation in water under atmospheric conditions for several variants of contact angle and degree of superheat. Table 1 lists important parameters used in their simulations, and figure 8 gives a comparison of their numerical results with their own best-fit correlation. The contact angle, measured in degrees, is expressed in this correlation as follows:

(4.11)\begin{equation} \left(\frac{\theta_{mr}-5^\circ}{313}\right)^3 \leqslant \frac{\mu_l\alpha_l}{\sigma}\frac{\textit{Ja}^2}{\delta_{KS}}, \end{equation}

where $\delta _{KS}$ (m) is the Kays–Crawford free convection boundary layer thickness, given as (Kays, Crawford & Weigand Reference Kays, Crawford and Weigand2003)

(4.12)\begin{equation} \delta_{KS} = 7.14\left(\frac{\mu_l\alpha_l}{\rho_l g\beta_l \Delta T}\right)^{1/3}, \end{equation}

with $g=9.81\ \textrm {m}\ \textrm {s}^{-2}$ being the gravitational acceleration, and $\beta _l$ the isobaric liquid thermal expansion coefficient $(\textrm {K}^{-1})$. Figure 9 is a plot of $\delta _{KS}$ as a function of Jakob number for water under atmospheric conditions, for which $\beta _l=7.52\times 10^{-4}\ \textrm {K}^{-1}$.

Figure 8.

Numerical results on the transition to the micro-layer regime by Urbano et al. (Reference Urbano, Tanguy, Huber and Colin2018) compared with their best-fit correlation, (4.11), and to a fit according to our correlation, (4.7), with $B$ determined from (4.8) and $R=R_0$ from table 1.

Figure 9.

Kays–Crawford boundary layer thickness, (4.12), as a function of Jakob number for water under atmospheric conditions.

Table 1.

Parameters used in the DNS study of Urbano et al. (Reference Urbano, Tanguy, Huber and Colin2018).

Figure 8 also presents a fit of the intermediate data points using (4.7). The intermediate regime was previously described by Urbano et al. (Reference Urbano, Tanguy, Huber and Colin2018) in terms of the appearance of strong interfacial deformation. Based on the discussion of the implications of (4.10) above, and further expanded in appendix A, we conjecture that this corresponds to the situation in which microlayer formation occurs only briefly after the onset of bubble growth, but then fails to fully develop due to the slowing of the bubble expansion. According to this line of reasoning, it follows immediately that the radius $R$ in (4.7) should be identified with the lowest available radius: i.e. the initial bubble radius $R_0$.

Evidently, (4.7) captures the delineation between the regimes to very good accuracy for small and moderate Jakob numbers. The associated value of $\ln (S)$ in (2.7) is $\sim$2, corresponding to a ratio of scales $S\approx 7.2$. Since this is a ratio of macroscopic to nanoscopic scales, the numerical value might be considered extremely small, but this is not surprising considering that the numerical slip length in a CFD simulation (without any special treatment) is of the order of the grid spacing $\Delta x$ (Afkhami et al. Reference Afkhami, Buongiorno, Guion, Popinet, Saade, Scardovelli and Zaleski2018). In the simulations analysed here, $\Delta x= 0.5\ \mathrm {\mu }\textrm {m}$; the microlayer scale after the onset of bubble growth is $O(1\ \mathrm {\mu }\text {m})$ as shown in appendix A. Evidently, the ratio of scales adopted is consistent with these values.

4.3. Benefits and limitations of DNS investigations of microlayer dynamics

Based on the insights gained from the analysis above, some of the benefits and limitations of a DNS investigation of microlayer dynamics should be emphasised. Clearly, the ability to freely vary material properties and boundary conditions allows DNS practitioners to methodically investigate the governing parameter space. For example, in reality, the non-adiabatic contact angle $\theta _{mr}$ is also a function of the wall superheat rather than being an independent variable, further complicating any interpretation of the experimental data.

From our own simulations, presented in appendix A, we have shown that the choice of the initial bubble size strongly affects the absence or presence of bubble interfacial deformation, which in extreme cases can lead to microlayer formation. For this reason, we conjecture that the sensitivity of the overall results to the initial conditions must be carefully evaluated in DNS studies. Note that the role of initial bubble radius on the observed dynamics, prominently featured in (4.7), is possibly an artefact of the numerical method employed, which considers only the heat-transfer-limited growth from a prescribed initial size. In reality, bubble nuclei start to grow from an embryonic radius $R_e$, which can be estimated as (Forster & Zuber Reference Forster and Zuber1955)

(4.13)\begin{equation} R_e \approx \frac{2\sigma T_s}{L\rho_v\Delta T} = O(1\ \mathrm{\mu}\text{m}), \end{equation}

where $T_s$ is the saturation temperature (K). The initial growth then occurs in the inertial regime, rather than in the heat-transfer-limited regime and the bubble-growth velocity can be approximately deduced from the asymptotic solution of the Rayleigh equation for spherical bubble growth on a plane surface (Witze, Schrock & Chambre Reference Witze, Schrock and Chambre1968; Mikic, Rohsenow & Griffith Reference Mikic, Rohsenow and Griffith1970)

(4.14)\begin{equation} U_{BG}= \frac{\text{d}R}{\text{d}t} \approx \sqrt{\frac{\rm \pi}{7}\frac{\rho_v L}{\rho_l}\frac{{\Delta} T}{T_{{s}}}}; \end{equation}

this expression is independent of the bubble radius. Based on the conventional analysis comparing the growth as determined by the formulae for the heat-transfer-limited and inertial regimes (Faghri & Zhang Reference Faghri and Zhang2006) and taking water at atmospheric conditions with superheat 10 K as an example, the inertial limit could be considered to be valid up to radii of ${\sim }100\text {--}150\ \mathrm {\mu }\textrm {m}$. This is in the range of sizes for which the microlayer formation can already be observed. Thus, the microlayer formation criterion taking into account the inertial regime, is

(4.15)\begin{equation} \frac{\theta_{mr}^3}{\sin(\theta_{mr})} \leqslant 9\ln(S)\frac{\mu_l}{\sigma}\sqrt{\frac{\rm \pi}{7}\frac{\rho_v L}{\rho_l}\frac{{\Delta} T}{T_{{s}}}} .\end{equation}

Applicability of this criterion to experimental data and/or results of DNS solvers capable of simulating the inertial bubble-growth regime should be addressed in future work.

Furthermore, significant attention must be paid to the very high value of the numerical slip, artificially introduced into classical CFD simulations by the very nature of the solution algorithm (Afkhami et al. Reference Afkhami, Buongiorno, Guion, Popinet, Saade, Scardovelli and Zaleski2018), and its impact on any deduced microlayer-forming criterion (e.g. via (4.7)) cannot be neglected. In addition, as the numerical slip length is at least an order of magnitude larger than the physical one (Afkhami et al. Reference Afkhami, Buongiorno, Guion, Popinet, Saade, Scardovelli and Zaleski2018), motion of the contact line is artificially promoted in CFD simulations. This could explain why dewetting phenomena play a more prominent role in CFD simulations incorporating a resolved microlayer (Guion et al. Reference Guion, Afkhami, Zaleski and Buongiorno2018; Urbano et al. Reference Urbano, Tanguy, Huber and Colin2018; Hänsch & Walker Reference Hänsch and Walker2019, this paper) than in related experimental studies. Indeed, the microlayer profile has often been described as monotonic in the vicinity of the contact line, and its destruction has been attributed to the physical process of evaporation in many experimental works on boiling in the microlayer regime (e.g. Yabuki & Nakabeppu Reference Yabuki and Nakabeppu2014, Reference Yabuki and Nakabeppu2017; Utaka et al. Reference Utaka, Hu, Chen and Morokuma2018; Chen et al. Reference Chen, Hu, Hu, Utaka and Mori2020), while the results of DNS often feature a hump-terminated microlayer (see figure 1), more typical of film dewetting, with hydrodynamic expulsion attributed to be the principal driving mechanism for microlayer destruction by Urbano et al. (Reference Urbano, Tanguy, Huber and Colin2018). This result is more consistent with experiments on volatile liquid films, for which a hump-like profile and dewetting chiefly due to capillary effects with only a minor role of evaporation have been reported (Fourgeaud et al. Reference Fourgeaud, Ercolani, Duplat, Gully and Nikolayev2016). It appears that experimentally observed dynamics of deposited volatile films and of the microlayer are not fully equivalent, especially in regard to the role of wetting; this discrepancy should be investigated in future work. Nevertheless, to capture the conditions occurring during boiling and limit the numerical slip effects, a more elaborate representation of the wetting phenomenon should be implemented into DNS codes; this will improve the transferability of DNS results on microlayer dynamics from numerical simulation to physical reality.

A straightforward example of such a model is a mesh-independent approach based on the theory of dynamic wetting proposed, for example, by Afkhami, Zaleski & Bussmann (Reference Afkhami, Zaleski and Bussmann2009), Afkhami et al. (Reference Afkhami, Buongiorno, Guion, Popinet, Saade, Scardovelli and Zaleski2018) and Legendre & Maglio (Reference Legendre and Maglio2015). Using the Cox–Voinov theory as demonstration, we can demand that the resulting interfacial slope is consistently reproduced, independently of mesh refinement. That is,

(4.16)\begin{equation} \theta_{app}^3 = \theta_{mr}^3 + 9\textit{Ca}\ln\left(\frac{x}{a}\right) = \theta_{\varDelta}^3 + 9\textit{Ca}\ln\left(\frac{x}{\varDelta}\right), \end{equation}

where $\theta _{\varDelta }$ is the mesh-dependent numerical contact angle, $\varDelta$ is a length characterising the numerical slip, and the capillary number Ca is based on the contact-line velocity. We can rearrange (4.16) as

(4.17)\begin{equation} \theta_{\varDelta}^3 = \theta_{mr}^3 + 9\textit{Ca}\left[\ln\left(\frac{x}{a}\right)-\ln\left(\frac{x}{\varDelta}\right)\right], \end{equation}

and immediately recover that the numerical contact angle should be given as

(4.18)\begin{equation} \theta_\varDelta = \sqrt[3]{\theta_{mr}^3 + 9\textit{Ca}\ln\left(\frac{\varDelta}{a}\right)}. \end{equation}

An example of the impact of this approach on microlayer dynamics in a simulation is presented in appendix A.

4.4. Remarks on initial microlayer thickness

Although the characteristics of a developed microlayer after its formation are not the main focus of this paper, we briefly remark on the (assumed) microlayer initial thickness $d$: i.e. its thickness before evaporation takes place. The classical theory of Cooper & Lloyd (Reference Cooper and Lloyd1969), recently re-analysed by Yabuki & Nakabeppu (Reference Yabuki and Nakabeppu2017) and Guion et al. (Reference Guion, Afkhami, Zaleski and Buongiorno2018), predicts

(4.19)\begin{equation} d(t)\propto\sqrt{\nu_l t}, \end{equation}

where $\nu _l=\mu _l/\rho _l$ is the liquid kinematic viscosity ($\textrm {m}^2\ \textrm {s}^{-1}$) and $t$ is the time since the onset of bubble growth. This expression has been derived under the assumption of a heat-transfer-limited regime, in which the bubble radius $R\propto \sqrt {\alpha _l t}$ (Scriven Reference Scriven1959), and is assumed to be valid provided that the microlayer is sufficiently thin (Yabuki & Nakabeppu Reference Yabuki and Nakabeppu2017). Using (4.4), we can recast the relation as

(4.20)\begin{equation} d(R)\propto\sqrt{Pr_l}R, \end{equation}

where $Pr_l=\nu _l/\alpha _l$ (–) is the liquid Prandtl number. Although this proportionality expression had been introduced already by van Stralen et al. (Reference van Stralen, Sohal, Cole and Sluyter1975), it has not received much attention in the literature to date. In their (experimental) work, Utaka, Kashiwabara & Ozaki (Reference Utaka, Kashiwabara and Ozaki2013) found that, for water and ethanol, respectively

(4.21)\begin{gather} d_w = 4.46\times 10^{{-}3} r_s \text{ for water} \end{gather}

(4.22)\begin{gather}d_e = 1.02\times 10^{{-}2} r_s \text{ for ethanol}, \end{gather}

in which $r_s$ is the radial distance from the incipient bubble site along the heater surface. In their study, the bubbles were observed to grow almost hemispherically, so $r_s\approx R$. The ratio of the two experimental expressions is constant

(4.23)\begin{equation} \frac{d_e}{d_w} \approx 2.29. \end{equation}

Analogously, on theoretical grounds, (4.20), applied to both fluids simultaneously, predicts, under the assumption of an equal bubble-growth constant $B$

(4.24)\begin{equation} \frac{d_e(R)}{d_w(R)} = \sqrt{\frac{Pr_e}{Pr_w}} = 2.18, \end{equation}

in which the numerical ratio has been evaluated using the respective properties at saturation taken from the NIST Chemistry WebBook (Lemmon, McLinden & Friend Reference Lemmon, McLinden and Friend2018). The similarity between the experimental and theoretical predictions of the ratio of the initial microlayer thicknesses for the two fluids is suggestive, and should motivate further research with different working fluids to determine whether (4.20) represents a general correlation, or is just coincidental. Provided that substantial evidence for the scaling of the initial microlayer thickness in terms of $\sqrt {Pr_l}$ can be found, this result could perhaps be used to improve semi-empirical models of microlayer thickness estimation used in CFD simulations of boiling phenomena without a resolved microlayer, in the cases in which suitable correlations for the fluid in question are not available.