Vapor flows in the continuum limit in the presence of a small amount of noncondensable gas

Steady flows of a vapor around its condensed phase of arbitrary shape, on the surface of which evaporation and condensation of the vapor may take place, are considered in the presence of a small amount of a noncondensable gas. By a systematic asymptotic analysis of the Boltzmann system, the present authors have derived the fluid-dynamic system describing such flows in the continuum limit in the case where the amount of the noncondensable gas is infinitesimal compared with that of the vapor [K. Aoki, S. Takata, and S. Taguchi, Eur. J. Mech. B/Fluids 22, 51 (2003)]. In the present study, the fluid-dynamic system is applied to some physical problems, and it is demonstrated with concrete examples that such a tiny amount of the noncondensable gas causes dramatic changes of the overall vapor flows. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.