Thermocapillary Convection and Surface Fluctuation in a Liquid Bridge under Lateral Vibrations

• DOI: 10.1007/s12217-014-9407-8
• Publication Date: 2014-12-10T18:00:43Z
• Authors: Shuo Yang; Ruquan Liang; Fusheng Yan; Taiyin Gao; Yutao Feng
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 0103 physical sciences; 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences

An investigation on the effect of lateral vibrations on the thermocapillary convection and the surface behavior of a liquid bridge for high Prandtl number fluid has been conducted numerically. The Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the energy conservation equation were solved on a staggered grid, and the mass conserving level set approach was used to capture the free surface deformation of the liquid bridge. The present results show that the positions of the vortex centers in the radial and axial directions fluctuate periodically around the equilibrium positions when the external vibration is applied. The surface velocity without lateral vibration is larger than that with lateral vibrations, which means that the lateral vibrations inhibit the surface flow.