ABSTRACT -- CTS-92-23464 PI -- Bankoff The appearance of dry or nearly dry regions on a heated surface is important to many engineering technologies utilizing boiling or evaporative heat transfer. Previous work by the PI's has demonstrated new mechanisms, involving thermocapillary and recoil effects, for precursor formation. It is proposed to extend these studies by incorporating Van der Waals effects. These studies will involve numerical calculations for the advance of contact lines on the heated surface, including the formation of revulets in the wetting of initially dry surfaces, as well as experimental measurements of local film thicknesses.
