Flow and heat measurement within self-rewetting mixtures of 1-pentanol and water drops

Recently interest has arisen in the use of so-called self-rewetting mixtures for micro-scale heat transfer systems. Such fluids, in which the surface tension can increase with increasing temperature, are expected to offer superior evaporative cooling performance by extending the region of operation before dry-out of the heated surface sets in. Whilst improved performance has been shown in some practical situations using these fluids, it is not entirely clear as to the mechanism of such improvements. We have studied the flow within evaporating sessile drops of 1-pentanol-water mixtures using micro-PIV and have observed three stages in the evaporation process. During the first stage there appears to be a single toroidal vortex with flow inwards along the base of the drop. The vortex only occupies the central region of the drop and appears to pulsate, reducing in size during evaporation. This is followed by a second transition stage to a third stage in which the flow is directed radially outward, as observed by us for pure water droplet evaporation and in the latter stages of ethanol-water drop evaporation.