Thermocapillary Instabilities of Low Prandtl Number Fluid in a Laterally Heated Vertical Cylinder

Abstract

Stabilities of surface-tension-driven convection in an open cylinder are investigated numerically. The cylinder is heated laterally through its sidewall and is cooled at free surface by radiation. A seeding crystal at constant temperature is in contact with the free surface. Axisymmetric base flow is solved using the high-order finite difference method. Three-dimensional perturbation is applied to the obtained base flow to determine the critical Marangoni numbers at which the axisymmetry is broken. The eigenvalue matrix equation is solved using linear fractional transformation with banded matrix structure taken into account. Critical Marangoni-Reynolds numbers are obtained at various boundary conditions.