Recent measurements of the conditions existing at the interface of an evaporating liquid have found that the temperature approximately one mean free path from the interface in the vapor was higher than the temperature of the liquid at the interface. The measured temperature discontinuity at the interface is in the opposite direction of that predicted by several recent studies based on classical kinetic theory. A theoretical approach based on the transition probability concept of quantum mechanics, called statistical rate theory (SRT), is used herein to develop an expression for predicting the evaporation flux. The expression obtained is free of any fitting parameters. When applied to predict the conditions at which a particular value of the evaporation flux is expected and the result compared with the measurements at 15 different experimental conditions, it is found that the SRT expression accurately predicts the conditions.

• Received 18 February 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.59.429