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Thermocapillary Convection and Surface Fluctuation in a Liquid Bridge under Lateral Vibrations

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Abstract

An investigation on the effect of lateral vibrations on the thermocapillary convection and the surface behavior of a liquid bridge for high Prandtl number fluid has been conducted numerically. The Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the energy conservation equation were solved on a staggered grid, and the mass conserving level set approach was used to capture the free surface deformation of the liquid bridge. The present results show that the positions of the vortex centers in the radial and axial directions fluctuate periodically around the equilibrium positions when the external vibration is applied. The surface velocity without lateral vibration is larger than that with lateral vibrations, which means that the lateral vibrations inhibit the surface flow.

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Acknowledgments

The present work is supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the grants of 51376040 and 11072057.

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Correspondence to Ruquan Liang.

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Yang, S., Liang, R., Yan, F. et al. Thermocapillary Convection and Surface Fluctuation in a Liquid Bridge under Lateral Vibrations. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 27, 1–10 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-014-9407-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-014-9407-8

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