Suppression of Benard-Marangoni convection in microgravity environment

Abstract

In this paper the effect of container wall and its thermal properties on the possible suppression of the Marangoni convection in the microgravity environment is studied. An analytical model is built to study the effect of solid plate thickness and its conductivity on the linear stability of the system. The derivation is based on the normal model expansion. By requiring continuity of heat flux and temperature on the solid-liquid and liquid-gas interfaces, a relation is set to determine the eigenvalue problem, which is then solved by Muller’s method. It is found that when the heat transfer at the upper surface increases, a higher conductive plate gives higher critical Marangoni number. Under limiting condition of infinite large values of Biot number and thermal conductivity ratio between the plate and the liquid, the Marangoni convection can be completely suppressed. v -------__-_ ___-__---______ --------____ _-__-__-_ --_ _____--Senior Project Engineer, Member AIAA Copyright c 1992 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., All right reserved. v a