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In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states of matter : solid , liquid , and gas , and in rare cases, plasma .
The classical Stefan problem aims to describe the evolution of the boundary between two phases of a material undergoing a phase change, for example the melting of a solid, such as ice to water. This is accomplished by solving heat equations in both regions, subject to given boundary and initial conditions. At the interface between the phases ...
Within each phase, the properties are uniform but between the two phases properties differ. Water in a closed jar with an air space over it forms a two-phase system. Most of the water is in the liquid phase, where it is held by the mutual attraction of water molecules.
When the phase change occurs, there is a "thermal arrest"; that is, the temperature stays constant. This is because the matter has more internal energy as a liquid or gas than in the state that it is cooling to. The amount of energy required for a phase change is known as latent heat. The "cooling rate" is the slope of the cooling curve at any ...
Different modes of two-phase flows. In fluid mechanics, two-phase flow is a flow of gas and liquid — a particular example of multiphase flow.Two-phase flow can occur in various forms, such as flows transitioning from pure liquid to vapor as a result of external heating, separated flows, and dispersed two-phase flows where one phase is present in the form of particles, droplets, or bubbles in ...
Again, the molecules do not go through an intermediate liquid state when going from the gas to the solid. See also physical vapor deposition, which is a class of processes used to deposit thin films of various materials onto various surfaces. Deposition releases energy and is an exothermic phase change.
Vaporization (or vapo(u)risation) of an element or compound is a phase transition from the liquid phase to vapor. [1] There are two types of vaporization: evaporation and boiling . Evaporation is a surface phenomenon , whereas boiling is a bulk phenomenon (a phenomenon in which the whole object or substance is involved in the process).
Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle . [ 1 ] It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor to liquid water when in contact with a liquid or solid surface or cloud condensation nuclei within ...