A numerical study on the thermocapillary migration of a droplet under microgravity with periodic thermal boundaries using the front-tracking method

Abstract

This paper mainly studied the thermocapillary migration of deformable droplets induced by periodic temperature boundary under microgravity conditions. The finite-difference/front-tracking (FD/FT) method was used to solve the Navier–Stokes equation coupled with the energy equation, and the continuum surface force (CSF) model was used to simplify the surface tension of the phase interface. The results showed that the maximum droplet migration velocity increased with the increase of temperature amplitude, and the droplet cycle period became shorter with the increase of temperature angular frequency. In the 1/4 cycle, the initial movement time of droplet decreased with the increase of temperature phase. If the phase was reversed, the initial movement direction of the droplet changed. With the increase of Reynolds number (Re), the droplet tended to maintain its motion inertia.