Dynamic mode decomposition of thermocapillary convection in GaAs melt liquid bridge between unequal ends

Abstract

The effects of the radius ratio on the stability of thermocapillary convection in the GaAs melt (Pr=0.068) liquid bridge, situated between unequal ends, are studied by three-dimensional direct numerical simulation. The simulated results reveal that, for the first time, the GaAs melt flow transforms from a stable axisymmetric flow into a three-dimensional steady flow through the first bifurcation at 0.5≤Γr≤0.9. The bifurcation phenomenon was previously common in the range of small Prandtl numbers(0.001≤Pr≤0.057). Additionally, we observe that the stability of the thermocapillary liquid bridge is initially weakened and then slowly improved as the radius ratio Γr decreases. The second bifurcation occurs with the further increase of Ma, and the flow becomes oscillatory. Remarkably, two different oscillation forms are identified, depending on the difference in the degree of symmetry of the flow field structure during its oscillation process. Once the flow reaches a stable periodic oscillation, the Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) technique is used to study the inherent spatio-temporal evolution of the temperature field. By combining the spectrum obtained from the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), we provide evidence for the existence of mixed forms with different azimuthal wavenumbers from a dynamic perspective, intuitively displaying the different components of the oscillation and examining the contribution of different modes to the oscillation. The dynamic model analysis demonstrates that oscillation form I is a mixed form with m = 1 and m = 2, while oscillation form II belongs to the form where m = 2 is absolutely dominant.