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Interaction between thermocapillary and buoyancy driven convection

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Abstract

Convective flows driven by the variation of surface tension due to a radial temperature gradient along a liquid-gas interface were studied. Three liquids of different viscosities were applied, so that a wide range of Marangoni numbers was encountered. Light sheet technique and differential interferometry were taken to analyse the thermal flows. The mechanism of stationary thermocapillary convection, the influence of the radial temperature gradient and the kinematic viscosity on the Marangoni boundary layer thickness are discussed. Transitions from the steady to the oscillatory Marangoni convection are discovered and the oscillations are visualized with differential interferometry.

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Abbreviations

a :

thermal diffusivity

D :

cell diameter

f :

tangential stress

H :

cell height

Mg :

Marangoni number, Mg = U · R/a

Pr :

Prandtl number, Pr = v/a

r :

radial coordinate tangential to the interface

R :

cell radius

Re :

Reynolds number, Re = UR/v

T :

temperature

T b, Tm :

temperature at the boundary and in the centre of the cell, respectively

ΔT :

temperature difference, ΔT — T b — Tm

U :

reference velocity, U = ¦dσ/dT¦(ΔT/R) R/μ

v r :

radial stream velocity

v x :

velocity at the interface

z :

axial coordinate normal to the interface

μ :

dynamic viscosity

ν :

kinematic viscosity

σ :

surface tension

dσ/dT:

thermal coefficient of surface tension

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl für Mechanik, Universität-GH-Essen, W-4300, Essen, Germany

    J. A. Szymczyk

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  1. J. A. Szymczyk
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Szymczyk, J.A. Interaction between thermocapillary and buoyancy driven convection. Experiments in Fluids 12, 151–156 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00188253

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00188253

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