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.