  The study of vapor bubble growth following droplet vaporization in a
superheated liquid involves research areas such as hydrodynamics, heat
transfer, mass transfer, and thermodynamics. The interplay between these
multiscale aspects is strongly dependent on the geometry, the thermodynamic
response, and the local physical properties of the system. To understand the
role of each aspect of this complex mechanism we model super-heated droplet
vaporization by coupling the equation of motion for bubble growth with the
thermodynamics of phase change and heat transfer through the
convection-diffusion equation. The semi-analytical model is validated with the
analytical description for vapor bubble growth dominated either by inertia
(Rayleigh) or by thermal diffusion (Plesset-Zwick), depending on droplet radius
and degree of superheat. The effect of a mismatch of the thermal properties
between the host liquid and the droplet is shown to be relevant only for low
superheating, above which an increase in thermal diffusivity leads to a
reduction in the rate of vaporization. At medium to high superheating, the
droplet vaporizes completely without relying on thermal diffusion. At the point
of complete vaporization, the potential energy within the system drives the
bubble overshoots, which vary based on the droplet size and degree of
superheat.
