THE LIQUID BRIDGE CONFIGURATION AND EFFECTS OF BUOYANCY IN THERMOCAPILLARY CONVECTION

The effects of gravity and thermocapillary convection in the liquid bridge with different aspect ratio L/D are studied in the present paper. Two flow cells appear in the liquid bridge. If L/D is longer, however, the flow pattern is not necessarily associated with the thermocapillary oscillatory convection. In order to simulate the space microgravity situation on the ground laboratory, the height of the liquid bridge must be smaller than, for example, 1.5mm. The convection and thermal transportation in a liq...