Numerical study on the effect of heat loss upon the critical marangoni number in a half-zone liquid bridge

Abstract

In a half-zone (HZ) liquid bridge, flow exhibits a transition from a two-dimensional steady to a three-dimensional oscillatory flow if the Marangoni number Ma exceeds a critical value Mac, or ΔT>ΔTc. In case of high Prandtle number fluids, the Mac obtained in the numerical simulations deviated significantly from the ones by the experiments. One of the causes of the difference is due to the heat loss over the free surface. Most of past researches neglected effects of the heat loss through an interface of the liquid bridge. Recently several experimental and analytical works reported that the critical condition is significantly affected by the heat loss. The present study aims to include the effects of the heat loss upon the Mac. As the result, the calculated Mac agrees well with the experiment for a high Pr fluid.