Infrared Thermography Investigation of an Evaporating Sessile Water Droplet on Heated Substrates

The present study is an experimental investigation of the thermal evolution of millimeter-sized sessile water droplets deposited on heated substrates. Infrared thermography is used to record temperature profiles on the droplet interface in time as evaporation takes place. The local measurements of the interface temperature allowed us to deduce the local evaporation rate and its evolution in time. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such measurements have been performed. The deduced evaporation rate using thermography data has been validated with optical measurements. Temperature evolution is used to reveal the contact line location and transient temperature fields. Temperature differences between the apex of the droplet and the contact line are shown to decrease in time. The rate of local temperature increase at the interface is found to behave linearly with tithe. The slope of this linear increase turns out to be more pronounced as the substrate temperature is increased. A generalized linear trend, using dimensionless properties for the interface temperature rise. is deduced from the measurements.