Velocity distribution of evaporating water molecules

[Kazys]

What is the velocity distribution of evaporating H2O molecules? It can not be Maxwellian.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Good question. A bit of google-foo yields:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01384861#page-1

http://about.brighton.ac.uk/shrl/publications/CFD/Xie_Kyoto_12.pdf

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1210.3158.pdf

 

[Kazys]

Thank you for the references. They deal with rather specific issues of this general question. I would like to
reframe it in more simple terms. A Maxwellian distribution results when freely moving particles interact
elastically. The question can be posed as follows - is the evaporation of an H2O molecule elastic?
Is it a two particle interaction? If not, can the distribution of evaporating molecules be Maxwellian?