Evaporation into vacuum: Mass flux from momentum flux and the Hertz-Knudsen relation revisited

We performed molecular dynamics simulations of liquid film evaporation into vacuum for two cases: free evaporation without external supply of energy and evaporation at constant average liquid temperature. In both cases we found that the pressure inside a liquid film was constant, while temperature decreased and density increased as a function of distance from the middle of the film. The momentum flux in the vapor far from the liquid was equal to the liquid pressure in the evaporating film. Moreover the pseudopressure (stagnation pressure) was found to be constant in the evaporating vapor and equal to the liquid pressure. The momentum flux and its relation to the pressure determined the number of evaporating molecules per unit time and as a consequence the mass evaporation flux. We found a simple formula for the evaporation flux, which much better describes simulation results than the commonly used Hertz-Knudsen relation.