Hydrodynamics in weak force fields onset of steady thermocapillary convection in a spherical fluid layer under zero-g conditions

In the study of cellular convection in an infinite plane fluid layer with a free surface, both the Archimedes and thermocapillary forces [1–3] have been cited as reasons for the onset of convection. This has also been confirmed experimentally [4], When mass forces are absent or negligibly small it is natural to pose the question of the onset of pure thermocapillary convection or convection caused only by the surface tension gradients (see [2–3]). In the present paper, this problem is examined for a spherical fluid layer under zero-g conditions.     

Étude expérimentale des transferts de chaleur fluide-paroi induits par convection thermocapillaire : influence du nombre de PrandtlExperimental study of fluid-wall heat transfer induced by thermocapillary convection: influence of the Prandtl number

This article concerns heat transfer due to thermocapillary convection induced by an air bubble introduced under a heated wall into a silicone oil layer. An experimental study is carried out under normal gravity conditions with direct measurements by means of a heat fluxmeter. Effects of the bubble size and the temperature gradient are systematically investigated for two values of viscosity. The nature of the thermocapillary convection state (stationary or oscillatory) is determined by shadowgraphy. Two regimes of heat transfer are made evident. They depend on the Prandtl number but are independent of the state of the flow. To cite this article: C. Reynard et al., C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).     

Numerical modeling of thermocapillary convection in a liquid layer with a nonlinear dependence of the surface tension on temperature

The principal characteristics of thermocapillary convection in a rectangular channel with one of the boundaries heated to a temperature higher and the other to a temperature lower than T₀ are investigated numerically on the basis of the Navier-Stokes equations. Certain convection characteristics corresponding to normal and anomalous thermocapillary effects are qualitatively compared. The conditions under which self-similar solutions of the type obtained in [10] can be used to describe the flow in a bounded region are determined.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 138–143, January–February, 1991.     

Influence of boundary conditions on the convective stability of a rotating horizontal layer of liquid

A theoretical study is made of the critical curves for the onset of convection in a plane horizontal layer of liquid rotating with constant angular velocity for different conditions on the boundary of the layer. It is shown that, in contrast to Chandresekhar's curves [1] obtained under the condition of constancy of the temperature on the boundaries, the curves for a constant heat flux lie significantly lower, so that convection occurs earlier for all Taylor numbers. At large Taylor numbers all the stability curves, as in [1], tend to the asymptotes R_C Ta^2/3, where Ta is the Taylor number and R_C is the critical Rayleigh number. A similar investigation for a nonrotating liquid was made in [2].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 124–129, May–June, 1988.We thank G. S. Golitsyn for the proposed subject and constant interest in the work.     

Thermocapillary and thermogravitational convection in a two-layer system with curved interface

In an earlier study [1], the present authors used the complete nonlinear hydrodynamic equations to investigate thermocapillary convection in a two-layer system. Oscillatory instability of the equilibrium was established for some ratios of the parameters. In the present paper, a study is made of the influence on the thermocapillary convective motions of two different factors — curvature of the interface and gravity. It is established that curvature of the interface can lead to significant changes in the flow structure and hysteresis transitions between convection regimes. In the case of the joint influence of the thermogravitational and thermocapillary instability mechanisms, many different flow regimes are found: steady motions with different directions of rotation of the vortices and periodic and nonperiodic oscillatory motions with different spatial structures.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 175–179, May–June, 1984.We thank E. M. Zhukovitskii for discussing the results.     

Convection in a two-layer system due to the combined action of the Rayleigh and thermocapillary instability mechanisms

In a two-layer system loss of stability may be monotonic or oscillatory in character. Increasing oscillatory perturbations have been detected in the case of both Rayleigh [1, 2] and thermocapillary convection [3–5]; however, for many systems the minimum of the neutral curve corresponds to monotonic perturbations. In [5] an example was given of a system for which oscillatory instability is most dangerous when the thermogravitational and thermocapillary instability mechanisms are simultaneously operative. In this paper the occurrence of convection in a two-layer system due to the combined action of the Rayleigh (volume) and thermocapillary (surface) instability mechanisms is systematically investigated. It is shown that when the Rayleigh mechanism operates primarily in the upper layer of fluid, in the presence of a thermocapillary effect oscillatory instability may be the more dangerous. If thermogravitational convection is excited in the lower layer of fluid, the instability will be monotonic.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 166–170, January–February, 1987.     

Thermocapillary convection in two-layer systems in the presence of a surface active agent at the interface

Convective instability in a layered system due to the thermocapillary effect was investigated in [1–5]. In these studies it was shown that the perturbations responsible for equilibrium crisis may build up either monotonically or in an oscillatory fashion. In [6] the stabilizing effect of a surface active agent (SAA) on thermocapillary instability was established for a layer with a free surface. For layers of infinite thickness the effect of SAA on thermocapillary convection was studied in [7–9]. The present investigation is concerned with thermocapillary convection in a system of two layers of finite thickness in the presence of an SAA. Convection due to the lift force is not considered. It is established that the principal result of the action of the SAA is not the stabilizing effect on the monotonic mode but the appearance of a new type of oscillatory instability.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2 pp. 3–8, March–April, 1986.In conclusion the authors wish to thank E. M. Zhukhovitskii for discussind the results.     

Experimental study of Marangoni bubble migration in normal gravity

Marangoni convection, whether thermal or solutal, is known to have a profound impact on many technological processes involving gas inclusions in a liquid phase. Evidently, similar phenomena may arise both in thermocapillary and solutocapillary situations, due to similarity of the motion driving mechanisms. However, the fact that the characteristic times of heat and surfactant diffusion generally differ by several orders of magnitude lends singularity to the behavior of Marangoni convection in inhomogeneous mixtures. Moreover, in the solutocapillary case one can meet the action of some additional effects associated with dissolution of the surfactant in a liquid, its adsorption at the interface and evaporation into a gas phase. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the results of ground experiments studying the behavior of air bubbles in a liquid under the action of thermocapillary and solutocapillary forces. The use of original experimental techniques makes it possible to eliminate the influence of gravity effects. A new Marangoni phenomenon—solutocapillary bubble migration—was detected and investigated. The results of studying thermal and concentration convective flows and bubble motion, in relation to bubble size, time, liquid layer thickness and fluids properties, are presented and discussed.     

Derivation of the equations of slow nonisothermal gas flows

In recent years, some new phenomena have been predicted theoretically on the basis of the Burnett approximation. These include thermal-stress and concentration-stress convection [1–3], and also effects due to the influence of a magnetic field in a multiatomic gas (viscomagnetic heat flux, etc., [4]). It has been shown theoretically (see [5]) that under certain conditions various terms of the Burnett approximation must be taken into account in the expression for barodiffusion. The conclusions relating to a viscomagnetic heat flux have recently been confirmed experimentally [4]. The predicted phenomena follow rigorously from the Burnett equations. However, many hydrodynamicists adopt a sceptical attitude to these equations, which is due partly perhaps to attachment to the classical Navier-Stokes equations, which have served theoreticians without fail for a century and a half. In this connection, we discuss the evolution of ideas relating to the validity of the Burnett approximation. We discuss the minimal assumptions which must be made in order to derive the equations of slow [Reynolds number R = 0(1)], essentially nonisothermal [ ln T = 0(1)] flows of a gas as a continuous medium (Knudsen number K O) in the case when the derivatives of the thermal Burnett stresses in the momentum equation have the same order of magnitude as the Euler and Navier-Stokes terms of this equation [1–3].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 6, pp. 77–84, November–December, 1979.We thank G. I. Petrov and L. I. Sedov for discussions that stimulated the above analysis.     

Thermocapillary Vortices Induced by a Light Beam near a Bubble Surface in a Hele-Shaw Cell

This paper studies thermocapillary vortices induced by local heating of a bubble surface in a Hele-Shaw cell by a light beam. It is found that the vortex rotation frequency and its depth depend on the distance from the light-beam projection onto the layer to the bubble boundary. The surface velocity of the thermocapillary flow is calculated using the balance of the near-surface and return flows of the thermocapillary vortex and the equality of capillary and dynamic pressures. It is shown that a decrease in the surface velocity and the vortex rotation frequency with increase in the distance from the light beam to the bubble surface is due to a decrease in the temperature gradient between the illuminated and cold poles of the bubble.__________Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 93–99, September–October, 2005.     

Influence of anisotropy of the permeability on the convection and heat transfer in a porous annular layer

Investigations into the convective transport of heat in porous materials are of interest for many applications in connection with the problem of increasing the efficiency of thermal insulation. In [1–5], convection in Isotropic porous media was considered. However, in many cases porous materials have an essential anisotropy of their permeability. Convective heat transfer has been inadequately studied for this case. In [6], the linearized equations were used to study the convection between infinite horizontal planes with a filling of an anisotropic material; the value of the critical Rayleigh number was found, and this agreed satisfactorily with experimental data. In the present paper, we investigate numerically convection between two infinite coaxial cylinders with an anisotropic porous filling, using the equations of convection in the Darcy—Boussinesq approximation [1–3]. The permeability tensor in the annular region is constructed from its principal values, which can be found experimentally. A method of calculation is developed and a parametric study made of the structure of the flow and of the local and averaged characteristics of the heat transfer, which are of interest for the design of thermal insulation.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 59–64, January–February, 1980.     

Dissolved gas effects on thermocapillary convection during boiling in reduced gravity environments

The mechanisms by which thermocapillary convection arises during boiling of nominally pure fluids in low-g environments are currently not known. It has recently been suggested that small amounts of dissolved gas within the bulk liquid can accumulate within the vapor bubble, forming localized concentration gradients that results in a temperature gradient to form along the liquid–vapor interface that drives thermocapillary convection. This hypothesis was tested by boiling > 99.3% pure n-perfluorohexane with and without noncondensible gas in a low-g environment using a 7.0 × 7.0 mm² microheater array to measure time and space resolved heat transfer at various wall superheats. The thermocapillary convection around the primary bubble that formed in the gassy fluid was found to be much weaker than in the degassed fluid, and the primary bubble diameter was much larger in the gassy fluid due to the accumulation of noncondensible gas within the bubble. The results suggest that the accumulation of noncondensible gas in the bubble can result in temperature variations along the interface but due to the increased vapor/gas bubble size, the driving thermocapillary temperature gradient along the interface is significantly reduced and result in much weaker thermocapillary flow. The highest CHF values in a reduced gravity environment (19 W/cm²) occurred when the fluid was highly subcooled and degassed.     

Investigation of thermogravitational-thermocapillary steady-state convective flow stability at low Prandtl numbers

The stability of gravitational-capillary flow in a square cavity with isothermal vertical and adiabatic horizontal boundaries is investigated. The region of stable regimes in the Grashof number-Marangoni number plane is determined for a fluid with a Prandtl number equal to 0.02. In [1] the stability of steady-state thermogravitational convection regimes in a laterally heated square cavity was numerically investigated. The Galerkin method with a system of coordinate functions constructed as proposed in [2] was used to solve the system of equations of free convection in the Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation. Below, the variant of the Galerkin method described in [2] is used to investigate the stability of steady-state regimes of free convection flow developing under the combined influence of thermogravitational and thermocapillary forces.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 8–13, March–April, 1990.     

Effect of thermocapillary forces on free-surface fluid motion

The investigation of thermocapillary convection in fluids with a parabolic temperature dependence of the surface tension is continued within the context of the problem formulated in [1].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 3–7, September–October, 1989.     

Investigation of hydrodynamic and heat and mass transfer processes for crystal growing by the Czochralski method

A mathematical model and numerical method are developed and used to investigate nonstationary flow and heat and mass transfer regimes in a melt appropriate to the conditions of Czochralski crystal growth. A study is made of the separate and combined influence of rotation and thermal, concentration, and thermocapillary convection on the distribution of the temperature and the dopant in the range of regime parameters corresponding to large charging masses of the melt with small value of the kinematic viscosity. Large-scale fluctuations are found to occur when rotation and thermal convection interact. Thermocapillary convection is shown to have an important influence on the resulting motion when it interacts with the thermal and concentration forms of convection. A comparison is made with the results of experimental and theoretical investigations of other authors.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 55–65, January–February, 1981.     

Flow structure in motion of a spherical drop in a fluid medium at intermediate Reynolds numbers

The problem of flow of a viscous fluid around a spherical drop has been examined for the limiting case of small and large Reynolds numbers in several investigations (see [1–3], for instance; there is a detailed review of various approximate solutions in [4]). For the intermediate range of Reynolds numbers (approximately 1Re100), where numerical integration of the complete Navier-Stokes equations is necessary, there are solutions of special cases of the problem —flow of air around a solid sphere [5–7], a gas bubble [8, 9], and water drops [10]. The present paper deals with flow around a spherical drop at intermediate Reynolds numbers up to Re=200 for arbitrary values of the ratio of dynamic viscosities =₁/₂ inside and outside the drop. It is shown that a return flow can arise behind the drop in flow without separation. In such conditions the circulatory flow inside the drop breaks up. An approximate formula for the drag coefficient of the drop is given.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 8–15, January–February, 1976.We thank L. A. Galin, G. I. Petrov, L. A. Chudov, and participants in the seminars led by them for useful discussions.     

Effect of a dispersed component on the nature of heat exchange during flow of a heterogeneous-jet around a barrier

Flow in a turbulent nonisothermal heterogeneous jet is characterized by considerable velocity [1, 2] and temperature disequilibrium [3] (u_s u and T_s T, where u_s, T_s and u, T are velocity and temperature of dispersed and gas components). As was shown in [4], an impurity is not passive, and it leads to suppression of jet turbulence (a result of interphase exchange by pulse and heat). Nonetheless, during reaction of a heterogeneous jet with a barrier orientated along the normal to the running flow, a significant increase is observed in heat emission characteristics in the vicinity of the point of deceleration [5] (for a single-phase jet an increase in heat exchange is typical with an increase in the intensity of turbulence [6]). The intensity of the change in heat emission in this case is a result of velocity and temperature disequilibrium for flow in jets, and it depends on a number of factors (temperature, concentration, phase condition of the dispersed impurity, etc.) and on the nature of the reaction of the dispersed component with the barrier surface [7]. There are numerous experimental data devoted to this. Apart from work in [5, 7], attention is drawn to [8] where an increase is also noted in the heat flow (by a factor of 1.4) at the deceleration point for a plane cylindrical end and a hemisphere. The aim of the present work is a study of the effect of a dispersed component on heat exchange with jet flow around a barrier.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 6, pp. 63–68, November–December, 1986.     

Mean square velocities of bénard convection and heat transfer

The approximate formula K a^–2R(N–1), where a is a constant near 9 and R and N are the Rayleigh and Nusselt numbers, was proposed in [1] for the dimensionless kinetic energy K of convection in a horizontal layer of liquid. It is shown in the present paper that this expression is exact in linear and weakly nonlinear convection theory when the velocity and temperature fields are represented analytically [2–4]. The valuea is found to be 8.76 when the upper and lower boundaries of the layer are solid walls. The results are given of numerical calculations of the kinetic energy of the convection and the heat transfer in a wide range of Rayleigh numbers (up to 44 000) and Prandtl numbers (0.025 P 15). Analysis of the results shows that a is in fact a weak function of both R and P. If this is also the case at large R, it indicates a certain breaking of scaling of the mean convection characteristics at sufficiently large values of the Rayleigh number. It also indicates why laboratory experiments give values of n in the dependence N Rⁿ which are generally slightly less than the theoretical value n = 1/3.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 11–18, September–October, 1981.We should like to thank N. F. Vel'tishchev for providing first data of the numerical experiments of [13–15].     

Hydrodynamics in weak gravitational fields small oscillations of an ideal liquid in a cylindrical vessel

The problem of determining the frequencies and forms of small natural oscillations of an ideal liquid in a cylindrical vessel under conditions close to weightlessness is examined. It is assumed that a weak homogeneous gravitational field acts parallel to the vertical generatrix forming the cylinder. In contrast to [1], where only the first antisymmetric oscillation frequency is found for a semiinfinite cylindrical vessel, the frequencies of several axiosymmetric, antisymmetric, etc. oscillations are obtained as functions of the gravitational-field intensity and other parameters of the problem. The Ritz method is employed for two different variations of the problem, equivalent to that of oscillations of an ideal liquid under conditions of weightlessness [1–5].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR. Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 3–13, March–April, 1973.     

Parameters of streamer breakdown in xenon

It is known from experiments [1–3] that the velocity of streamers, induced in the center of the interelectrode gap and propagating to the electrodes under conditions when the streamer length is comparable with the distance between the electrodes, increases linearly as the streamer length increases. This relationship is in qualitative agreement with theory [4], Nevertheless, the velocity of streamers starting from the electrodes and propagating in a long interelectrode gap remains practically constant during the whole propagation process [5, 6], In the case of short gaps (2–5 cm), constancy of the velocity is observed during the stage of the process when the length of the streamer is much less (20%) than the length of the gap [7], Since the electric field at its end controls the streamer propagation, the constancy of the streamer velocity indicates that the controlling field is constant under these conditions. A number of theoretical models were proposed in [8–13] which describe uniformly moving anode- and cathode-directed streamers (henceforth called anode and cathode streamers). Comparison of experimental data with the corresponding theoretical model enables one to determine the streamer parameters: the electric field, the charged-particle density, the current density, the channel radius, etc. In the case of an anode streamer in Xe an attempt at such a comparison was made, in particular, in [6]. However, the lack of reliable data on the value of the drift velocity and the diffusion coefficient of electrons in Xe for E/p (10² – 10³) V/cm · mm Hg allowed only rough estimates to be made. In this paper a numerical calculation is made of the drift velocity, the diffusion coefficient of electrons in Xe, and the rate of excitation of Xe atoms in the resonance level in the range of values of E/p (10¹–10³) V cm · mm Hg, and the volt-ampere characteristic of the breakdown is measured under conditions described in [6] (p₀=300 mm Hg and E 10⁴–10⁵ V/cm). Using these results, the formulas for the velocity of anode [12] and cathode [13] streamers, and experimental data [6], the parameters of the streamers studied in [6] are determined.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Meknaniki i Tekhmcheskoi Fiziki, No. 3, pp. 6–11, May–June, 1976.The authors thank A. T. Rakhimov and A. N. Starostin for useful discussions, and A. V. Markov for help with the experiments.