The stability of the motion of a liquid,due to thermocapillary forces

A study is made of the stability of the plane-parallel flow of a viscous liquid in a layer with a free boundary, under weightless conditions. The motion of the liquid is due to the dependence of the surface tension on the temperature. An exact solution for an unperturbed boundary is obtained by the same method used in 1], but with a more general boundary condition for the temperature. A study of the stability was carried out by the method of small vibrations, taking account of the perturbation of the free boundary. The article discusses the asymptotic behavior of long waves at small Reynolds numbers, and the conditions for instability are found.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 6, pp. 94–98, November–December, 1971.