Thermocapillary migration of liquid droplets in a temperature gradient in a density matched system

Abstract

An experimental investigation of thermocapillary flow in droplets of a vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated soybean oil) immersed in silicone oil was conducted in a test cell with a heated top wall and a cooled bottom wall. The liquids are nearly immiscible and have equal densities at a temperature below the room temperature, thus providing a simulation of low-gravity conditions by reducing the buoyancy forces. The interfacial tension between the two oils was measured in the temperature range 20–50°C using a capillary tube and dσ/dT was determined to be negative. Droplets ranging in sizes from 3 mm to 1 cm diameter were injected into the silicone oil. The vertical temperature profile in the bulk liquid (silicone oil) produces temperature variations along the interface which induce variations in the interfacial tension. The flow inside the droplet driven by the resulting interfacial shear stresses was observed using a laser light-sheet flow visualization technique. The flow direction is consistent with the sign of dσ/dT. The observed maximum surface velocities are compared to the theoretical predictions of Young et al. (1959).

For short times after injection, the droplets were driven by this flow towards the hot wall above the matched-density temperature until the droplets reached a point where the forces due to the flow and buoyancy were equal. After longer times, the droplets moved to the cold side due to suspected density changes caused by mass transfer from the droplets to the silicone oil. This was confirmed by tests under isothermal conditions, where it was observed that droplets of all sizes fell to the cold bottom eventually.

Thus, even though the thermocapillary flow inside the droplets persisted for long times in spite of the mass transfer, the migration of droplets towards the hot side was eventually affected by uncontrolled buoyancy forces resulting from density changes due to mass transfer. While additional liquids are being tried, it is suggested from the present experience that reduced gravity experiments will probably be necessary to provide unambiguous data for the migration of droplets.