23rd International Symposium on Transport Phenomena
Auckland, New Zealand
1922 November 2012
Numerical investigation for the effect of meniscus geometry
on thermocapillary flow in a thin liquid film
T. Yamamoto1, Y. Takagi1, T. Ban1, Y. Okano1, H. Minakuchi2 and S. Dost3
1
Department of Materials Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8351, Japan
2
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 093-0213, Japan
3
Crystal Growth Laboratory, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 3P6
Abstract
Dr. D. Pettit, a NASA Astronaut, carried out a Marangoni
convection experiment onboard the International Space Station
(ISS) in 2003. In this experiment, a thin water film containing
milk powder tracers was formed in a stainless-steel wire ring.
The heating of a section of the ring by a soldering iron induced a
thermocapillary flow in the water film. This flow was towards
the heated part of the ring, in other words it was an outward flow.
However, the theoretically predicted thermocapillary flows were
in the opposite direction. In order to be able to predict the flow
direction correctly, we have carried out a three-dimensional
numerical simulation study by also including the effects of wire
curvature and meniscus shape. The simulation showed that the
meniscus shape determines the flow direction. Its inclusion in the
simulation also led to the prediction of an outward flow (from
center to the hotter part of the ring) in the water film as observed
in the space experiment of Dr. D. Pettit.
Introduction
Thermocapillary, solutocapillary, and Marangoni flows
driven by surface tension gradients along free surfaces are
observed in chemical engineering in various unit operations such
as extraction, gas adsorption, and distillation. Due to their
important roles in these processes, the surface tension gradient
driven flows have thus been widely studied. For instance,
Pearson [9], through a study on the thermocapillary effect,
investigated the Marangoni instability in a static liquid layer
heated from the bottom. In crystal growth particularly, due to
their adverse effects on crystal quality, thermocapillary flows in
the growth melts have often been studied as a fundamental
problem of crystal growth, such as in a liquid bridge [4], [8], [12],
[16], a rectangular liquid layer [1-3], [13], [18], and an annular
pool [7], [10], [15], [17].
Thermocapillary flows also give rise to a characteristic flow
formation in thin liquid films. This formation is known as
hydrothermal wave, and occurs due to thermocapillary flow
instability. When the Marangoni number becomes larger than a
critical value, flow patterns shift to an oscillatory mode and form
the hydrothermal wave. The mechanism of hydrothermal wave
formation has been studied through experiments, linear stability
analyses, and numerical simulations [1-3], [7], [10], [13], [14],
[17] (for further reading on thermocapillary effects, see the
review article of Schatz and Neitzel [14]).
A series of interesting experiments on thermocapillary
effects was conducted by D. Pettit onboard the ISS [11]. These
scientific experiments are called Saturday Morning Science,
and were simple and did not require complex equipment. Among
those, D. Pettit has conducted an experiment in a thin water film
sustained in a circular stainless wire ring. In spite of a large ring
diameter, about 50 mm, it was possible to form a water film due
to the reduced gravity level of the ISS. The thin water film
containing milk powder tracers was held in the wire ring. When a
section of the ring was heated by bringing a soldering iron close
to the wire, a thermocapillary flow, driven by the surface tension
gradient along the free surface, developed in the liquid towards
the hotter region (which is called here an outward flow). This
was contrary to what is predicted theoretically since the liquid
surface tension is a monotonically decreasing function of
temperature.
To address this issue, Kawamura et al. [6] carried out a
combined study with a ground-based laboratory experiment and a
two-dimensional numerical simulation. Their experimental
method and the apparatus used were the replica of the space
experiment of Dr. Pettit. However, to be able to form a film under
Earths gravity, the diameter of the wire ring was selected much
smaller, as 10 mm, than that of the space experiment. In this
ground-based experiment, an outward flow was observed in the
film. Their 2-D numerical simulation (with the assumption of a
steady state flow and a Dirichlet boundary condition for the
temperature field), however, predicted an inward flow; the
computed flow was in the opposite direction of the experiment.
For the explanation of this discrepancy between their experiment
and simulation, they suggested that an effect other than heat
transfer might have caused the outward flow in the film. They
stated that the outward flow could be due to evaporation in the
film: water evaporated in the area near the heated region and then
evaporation gave rise to an outward flow towards the hotter
section of the ring. I. Ueno et al. also conducted an experiment of
water film sustained in a rectangular wire frame to investigate
this phenomenon [19]. One side of the frame was heated and the
other side was cooled. A thermocapillary flow developed in the
film, and inward and outward flow patterns were observed
depending on the Marangoni number.
As seen from the above discussion, questions still remain for
the reasons why an outward flow developed and why could not
be predicted numerically. Studies conducted thus far did not
examine the mechanisms determining the flow direction, and did
not provide a clear explanation for the development of an
outward flow in the experiments.
In this direction, with the purpose of shading light on the
mechanism determining the direction of the thermocapillary flow
develops in a thin circular liquid film, we have conducted a three-
dimensional numerical simulation. In the simulation we have
particularly focused on the effects of meniscus shape and wire
curvature since we have previously found that surface shape
affected the flow patterns in the half-zone method [8] (which is a
simplified model for the floating-zone crystal growth method)
and also in a thin liquid film [1]. Thus, the inclusion of the effects
of meniscus and boundary curvature in the simulation led to a
successful prediction for the flow direction in the film.
Numerical analysis
A schematic view of the computational domain is shown in
Fig. 1. The following assumptions were made in the model: (1)
The effect of gravity is negligible since the space experiment was
conducted under microgravity and the buoyancy driven
convection in the water film was not seen, (2) The heat loss from
water or solid wire into the ambient gas is negligible, (3) The
physical properties, except that of surface tension, are constant,
and the values at 293 K corresponding to the previous
experiments of Kawamura et al. [6] are used, (4) Free surface(s)
does not deform, and (5) The ambient gas is passive.
Heat transfer in the solid wire is analytically approximated
by one-dimensional unsteady heat conduction, and the following
unsteady function is obtained for temperature:
cost. Since we were interested in finding out the mechanism
determining the flow direction, such a downward scaling in the
size of the film is acceptable.
In the analysis, the solid wire was assumed to be a heat-
conducting rigid solid, and the liquid domain being pure water
was assumed to be a heat conducting, incompressible, Newtonian
fluid. The physical properties are presented in Table 1 and Table
2.
Table 1 Physical properties of water (293 K)

T T0
q

6t r
2

(1)
Property (Symbol) Value Unit
A 2k 6t Thermal diffusivity ( 1.4310 -7
m2/s
where T is temperature, T0 the initial temperature, thermal Dynamic viscosity 9.9510-7 m2/s
diffusivity, t time, r radius, angle, k thermal conductivity, and
heat flux q/A was 1.0104 W/m2. The derivation of Equation (1) Density 9.98102 kg/m3
is given in Appendix A. Surface tension coefficient of
9.9310-5 kg/s2
Since the direction of a thermocapillary flow in a thin film is temperature (
affected by various factors, three different geometries of water Prandtl number (Pr) 6.96 -
film were considered to investigate the unsteady heat transfer
from the solid wire. All the thin water films were sustained in a Table 2 Physical properties of stainless steel wire (293 K)
wire ring. Then, the effects of meniscus and the liquid-solid
interface geometry were discussed. Property (Symbol) Value Unit
Thermal diffusivity ( 4.4010-6 m2/s
Computational domain
Thermal conductivity (k) 2.00101 kgm/(s3K)
The first (basic) computational domain was a non-skewed
thin cylinder. In this domain, the solid-liquid and liquid-gas The model equations
interfaces were assumed to be flat. A schematic diagram of the The governing equations of the liquid phase are the
domain is shown in Fig. 1 (a) (hereafter we call this geometry following momentum, continuity, and energy balance equations:
Case 1). We then focused on the meniscus shape. Estimating
v 1
the actual meniscus shape is very difficult because many factors (v )v P 2v (2)
affect the film shape, such as contamination, wire surface t
roughness, and temperature. Thus, we selected some geometric v 0 (3)
patterns of the computational domain and investigated what
T
geometry affects the flow direction. The computational domain v T 2T (4)
was similar to a thin cylinder and the free surface edge was t
skewed. In this case, the solid boundary wall was assumed to be where is the density, is the kinematic viscosity, and is the
flat and the meniscus shape was represented by a smooth Bezier thermal diffusivity of the liquid phase.
curve. The schematic of this computational domain is shown in Along the top and bottom free surfaces, thermocapillary
Fig. 1 (b) (hereafter Case 2), where, is the film thickness, wm forces are in effect, that is, the velocity gradient in the normal
is the meniscus width, and hm is the meniscus height. Finally, the direction to the free surface is proportional to temperature
solid boundary shape was assumed to be a curved wall matching gradient:
the wires long and narrow cylindrical shape. The schematic of v x T
this computational domain is shown in Fig. 1 (c) (hereafter Case T (5)
z x
3).
v y T
The diameter of the film used in the numerical simulation T (6)
(10 mm) is much smaller than that of the space experiment (50 z y
mm). This however was necessary to reduce the computational where presents viscosity and T is the surface tension
coefficient of temperature. The free surface(s) was assumed to be
(a) (b) adiabatic:
Stainless Meniscus
T 0
Stainless
Liquid film wire Liquid film (7)
wire
On the wire wall, no-slip condition is imposed for the flow
5 mm
velocity, and the temperature boundary condition is expressed by
5 mm
Eq. (1).
hm Initial temperature is uniform with a value of 293 K, and the
water film is stationary initially in all regions.
(c) wm The numerical procedure
Stainless
Liquid film
wire The governing equations shown in Eqs. (2) - (4) were
z discretized by the finite volume method, and the velocity and
y
5 mm
pressure fields were coupled by the PISO algorithm. The values
x on cell interfaces were calculated by a second-order central
difference scheme. For the discretization of time derivative, a
first-order implicit Euler method was applied. Computational
grids were non-orthogonal structured grids in multi blocks and
Fig. 1 A schematic view of the film geometry: (a) Case 1, (b) clustered near the wall because local fine grids were required to
Case 2, and (c) Case 3. capture small vertical flows near the wall. One of the numerical
 (a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 3 A snapshot of spoke patterns of temperature fluctuation

(hydrothermal wave).
z
y
similar to that of Peng et al. The snapshot of hydrothermal wave
x is shown in Fig. 3. The wave number was the same as that of
Fig. 2 Numerical grids: (a) Case 1, (b) Case 2, and (c) Case 3. Peng et al. [10]. Therefore, the verification of our simulation
code was successful.
grids used in the present simulation is shown in Fig. 2 and the Using this verified simulation code, we first examined to see
total number of grid points is 87,240. if the unsteady heat transfer at the wall and the three-dimensional
fluid flow structure in the domain played any role in determining
Results and Discussion the thermocapillary flow direction.
Grid convergence was assessed with different grids cases.
Verification of the numerical code Since the geometry of the computational domain in Case 2 was
the most complicated one in the present simulation, the grid
In order to verify the numerical code, the simulation of
convergence assessment was conducted for this case. The
thermocapillary buoyancy-driven flow in Peng et al. [10] was
geometry was selected as = 0.1 mm, wm = 0.05 mm, and hm =
repeated. This article focused on hydrothermal wave at the high
0.2 mm. Three grid levels were examined for each geometry. The
Pr number. This study was chosen to verify the code since the
total grid numbers were 13,430, 87,240, and 176,640. The flow
liquid used in our study is water, which is a high Pr number fluid.
patterns were almost the same in all grid revels.
The configuration of the computational model was a thin annular
Next, the grid dependency of the velocity profile at the film
pool with a free upper surface and a solid bottom. The inner and
surface at 10 s is shown in Fig. 4. The figure shows that the grid
outer walls were isothermal. The depth of the annular pool d was
density of the coarse grid was not sufficient, and the velocity near
1 mm, the Marangoni number Ma was 667.8, the dynamic Bond
the wall became larger with the increasing the number of grids.
number Bod was 0.125, and the temperature difference T
The former was caused by the lack of grid resolution with central
between the inner and outer walls was 8 K. Here, the Ma and Bod
difference scheme and the latter was caused by the grid resolution
numbers are defined by the following expressions:
near the wall. Poor grid resolution near the wall overestimates the
d 2 T (8)
Ma T
r r
scale of vortex. Higher grid resolution gives more accurate results.
0 i However, the computational cost increases dramatically with the
increasing grid resolution. From these results, one may see that
g T d 2
Bod (9) the result of fine 1 grid was corresponding to the result of fine 2
T grid qualitatively. Therefore, it was concluded that the fine 1 grid
where r0 is the outer radius, ri is the inner radius, and g is the was sufficient to express the behavior of the flow. In addition, the
gravitational constant. The physical properties were that of 0.65 grid density of the present study was comparable to that of Peng
cSt silicon oil with a thermal diffusivity of 0.9710-7 m2s-1, a et al. [10]. Peng et al. assumed that the outer radius was twice
kinematic viscosity of 0.6510-6 m2s-1, a density of 760 kgm- as the inner radius and the temperature difference between the
3
, a surface tension coefficient of temperature T of -8.010-5 N inner and outer radii was 2 K. The total volume of the
m-1K-1, a density coefficient of temperature T of 1.3410-3 K-1 , computational domain in this study was 23.56 mm3 ( was 0.3
and the Pr number of 6.7. The governing equations were the mm and the meniscus volume was neglected), while that of Peng
same as in Eqs. (2)-(4), and the Boussinesq approximation was
adopted. Gravity is normal to the top and bottom surfaces. The
velocity boundary conditions were no-slip on the inner, outer,
and bottom walls, and that of the top free surface was expressed
in Eqs. (5)-(6) due to the thermocapillary effect. The temperature
boundary conditions were isothermal on the inner and outer walls,
and adiabatic on the top and bottom boundaries. The top free
surface was assumed to be flat and non-deformable. The
numerical schemes are the following: (1) the second-order central
difference approximation for the diffusion term, (2) the QUICK
method for the convective term, (3) first-order implicit Euler
method for time advancement, and (4) PISO algorithm for the
coupling of the velocity and pressure fields. The computational
grid was uniformly structured, and the numbers of grid points
were 102, 16, and 244 in the r-, z-, and - directions, respectively.
In this simulation, the surface spoke pattern of temperature Fig. 4 The grid dependency of velocity profile at the film surface
fluctuation (hydrothermal wave) obtained numerically was on the upper line at 10 s.
et al. was 235.6 mm3 and their total grid number was 396,576.
The ratio of our grid number to that of Peng et al. was about 1/7-
1/8, while the ratio of the total volume was about 1/10.
Furthermore, the Prandtl numbers were very close in these two
simulations. Therefore, we can conclude that the numerical grid
resolution in this study was comparable to that of Peng et al..
Thermocapillary flow without meniscus
In this section we discuss the case where the water film was
assumed sustained in the circular wire without meniscus, and the
solid boundary is a flat wall. The circular film thickness was 0.1
mm and the diameter was 10 mm. The computed streamlines
(with flow directions) and temperature contours at 5 and 10 s
after heating were plotted in Figure 5. The increment of
temperature contours was selected as 0.5 K. The computed
streamlines exhibit a three-dimensional structure. However, this
is not obvious since the figure was seen in the normal direction to
the free surface. The flow pattern was a roll flow near wall. The
computed temperature fields show that heat transfer is affected
by fluid flow. This figure did not show a specific flow pattern
near the wall.
The streamlines were therefore examined from another
direction to see the behavior of the flow near the wall. The
streamlines with velocity vectors in the cross-section of = 0 of
the circular region are shown at 5 s in Figure 6. As seen from the
figure, a symmetric vortex pair developed near the wall. These
computational results may be explained as follows. Since the
temperature gradient in the film center near the heated edge was
steeper, the thermocapillary effect caused an inward flow and a
return flow developed in the inner region where the temperature
gradient was shallower. As a result, a large symmetric vortex pair
Heat Heat
(a) (b) 295 K
294 K
y y
x x
Heat Heat
(c) (d) 296 K
294 K
y y
x x
Fig. 5 Simulation results in complete thin cylindrical shape at 5s:
(a) streamlines and (b) temperature contours, and at 10s for (c)
streamlines and (d) temperature contours (with 0.5 K increments).
Heat
(a)
Heat
z results as follows. The film thickness did not play any role in
y an outward flow develops. Our numerical simulation results can
(b) 0.5 mm
Heat
z
y flows develop for hm/wm 1. When a small perturbation such
0.5 mm
Fig. 6 Simulation results presented in the cross-section at the
upper encircled region in Case 1: for (a) streamlines at 5 s (b)
velocity vector at 5 s.
developed in the film.
As seen from the above results, the simulation under the
above conditions did not predict the flow pattern of the space
experiment of D. Pettit. In order to shed further light on the issue,
we have also considered the contribution of film thickness. We
carried out simulations with different film thicknesses. However,
the numerical results showed that the film thickness did not affect
the flow direction. These results indicate that the consideration of
the unsteady heat transfer at the ring and three-dimensional flow
structures in the film were not sufficient to predict the outward
flow of the experiments. It seems there are other factors affecting
the flow direction.
Effect of meniscus
In this section, the effect of the following three parameters
of meniscus was investigated: film thickness , meniscus width
wm, and meniscus height hm. In this case, the simulation results
showed that both outward and inward flows could be obtained
depending on the values of these parameters.
For the following values of the parameters: = 0.2 mm, wm
= 0.05 mm, and hm = 0.2 mm, the numerical result showed an
outward flow, for which the snapshots of the computed
streamlines and temperature contours at 5 s and 10 s are shown in
Fig. 7. Isotherms were plotted with the increment of 0.5 K. As
seen in the figure, a symmetric vortex pair was emerged near the
wall similar to Case 1. The size of the symmetric vortex pair in
Case 2 was smaller compared with that in Case 1. In addition, the
interval of the temperature contours was smaller near the heat
source. It means that the temperature gradient near the heat
source towards the center became larger. When the numerical
result showed inward flow, the streamlines and temperature
contours are very similar to that in Case 1.
Heat
Heat
(a) (b) 295 K
294 K
y y
x x
Heat Heat
(c) (d)
296 K
294 K
y y
x x
Fig. 7 Simulation results for the case with meniscus (with an
outward flow development): for (a) streamlines at 5 s, (b)
temperature contour at 5 s, (c) streamlines at 10 s, and (d)
temperature contour at 10 s.
The results for the flow direction obtained numerically are
summarized in Figure 8 at 10 s. Fig. 8 (a) shows that an outward
flow developed with small wm and Fig. 8 (b) shows an inward
flow was predicted with large hm. Fig. 8 (c) and (d) show an
outward flow developed with large hm. We can summarize the
determining the flow direction. When hm is large and wm is small,
be roughly expressed in three categories based on the ratio of
hm/wm. An inward flow develops for hm/wm << 1, and an outward
flow develops for hm/wm >> 1, and both inward and outward
as numerical errors was added in the case of hm/wm 1, the flow
direction was easily changed and became unstable. Therefore,
one can state that the condition of hm/wm 1 represents a
 Inward flow
Inward and outward flow
Outward flow
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 8 Effect of meniscus shape on the flow direction: (a) for hm
= 0.1 mm, (b) for wm = 0.5 mm, (c) for wm = 0.1 mm, (d) for wm
= 0.05 mm.
transitional state (saddle point). Although the criteria of flow
direction switching is an important issue in thermocapillary flow
physics, a precise threshold was not investigated in the present
study since it was beyond our main objective, and the threshold
was dependent on geometrical and physical conditions.
As mentioned earlier, the film thickness was reduced
(compared with the experiment) because of the limitation of the
numerical simulation (computational cost). Here we discuss the
effect of this reduction. The following conditions were
investigated: wm = 0.1 mm, hm = 0.2 mm, and varying between
0.1 to 0.6 mm. When was less than or equal to 0.3 mm, the flow
pattern did not change significantly. On the other hand, when
was larger than 0.3 mm, the flow pattern was affected. It was
noted that a rolling flow pattern was observed when was larger
than 0.3 mm. In the flow pattern, the vortex pair expanded to the
whole film area. As a conclusion, the size of the symmetric
vortex pair became smaller with decreasing .
Next, the film diameter was changed from 10 mm to 50 mm
to compare the result of the space experiment with the numerical
results. The particle tracers movement obtained numerically is
shown in Fig. 9. The meniscus shape in the calculation is the
same as that in Fig. 7. Figure 9 shows that the pattern obtained
from the numerical simulation is almost the same as that
observed in the experiment and the order of the computed flow
velocity is the same that of the experiment. From these results,
we can conclude that our numerical analysis predicts well the
observation of the space experiment.
Effect of wall curvature
In this section, the effect of wall curvature without meniscus
is discussed. Fig. 10 shows the computed streamlines and
temperature contours at 5 s and 10 s. The isotherms were drawn
with an increment of 0.5 K. The film thickness was 0.3 mm and
the curvature radius was 0.15 mm in the basic model. In this case,
an outward flow was developed and a symmetric vortex pair
emerged near the wall similar to the other cases. When was 0.3
mm and the curvature radii were selected from 0.15 mm to 0.5
mm, outward flows were obtained under all conditions, and the
flow direction was changed even if the wall curvature was small
(curvature radius was large).
Next, the flow patterns depending on were evaluated. It
was assumed that the boundary wall kept a half cycle shape when
was changed. The symmetric vortex pair near the wall became
large for large values and the vortex near the wall became
smaller for small values. It was found that the flow direction
Fig.9 Time development of particle tracers movement: numerical
(light colored shapes) and space experiment (dark colored
shapes) [11].
Heat Heat
295 K
(a) (b)
294 K
y y
x x
Heat Heat
(d)
(c) 296 K
294 K
y y
x x
Fig. 10 Simulation results for the outward flow in the thin film
with curved wall (wall curvature): (a) streamlines at 5 s, (b)
temperature contour at 5 s, (c) streamlines at 10 s, and (d)
temperature contour at 10 s.
did not change by , and the size of the symmetric vortex pair
near the wall was affected only for the condition of Case 2.
Two-dimensional simulation in a cross-section plane
For a further examination of the generation of the symmetric
vortex pair near the wall, a two-dimensional simulation was
conducted for the cross-section of the film in the y-z plane. The
use of a two-dimensional model was for simplicity and also for
reducing the computational cost. The computational domain is
the rectangular film that was taken as the cross-section of three-
dimensional domain of Case 1, as shown in Figure 11. The
numerical grid was uniform, and the grid numbers were 400 and
200 in the y- and z- directions, respectively. It was assumed that
the top and bottom surfaces are free surfaces and the sides are
solid boundaries (wall). Initial temperature was uniform at the
value of 293 K. The temperature at the hot wall increased linearly
with time. Figure 12 shows the computed streamlines, velocity
vectors, and temperature contours at 1 s. Isotherms were plotted
with an increment of 0.5 K. As seen, a symmetric vortex pair
develops near the wall, and it was due to the temperature gradient
along the free surfaces. As seen in Figure 12 (c), the temperature
gradient is steep near the wall while it gets shallower away from
the boundary. Similarly, the flow velocity is stronger near the
wall and gets weaker towards the center (Figure 12(b)). A return
flow develops due to the difference in the flow strengths near the
free surface in the region where the flow slows down. Then, a
symmetric vortex pair emerges, as seen in Figure 12(a), due to
the decreasing temperature gradient.
Hot (wall) Top (free surface) Cold (wall)
z
0.1 mm Bottom (free surface)
10 mm
y
Fig. 11 Schematics of the two-dimensional numerical domain
(vertical cross-section).
 (a)
Heat
(b) 1 mm
Heat
(c)
1 mm
Heat
Cold
1 mm
293.1 K
Fig. 12 Two-dimensional simulation at 1 s: for (a) streamlines,
(b) velocity vector, and (c) temperature contour.
Results show that the vortex pair size depends on
temperature gradient. To discuss the relationship between
temperature gradient and the size of the vortex pair, the
temperature gradient distribution and the flow velocity variation
along the free surface in Case 2 are shown in Figures 13 and 14,
respectively. The liquid film geometry used was selected as =
0.2 mm, wm = 0.05 mm, and hm = 0.2 mm, which corresponds to
the cases in Fig. 7. As seen in Figure 13, temperature gradient
takes maximum or minimum values near the wall while a small
value in the central region. Similar to the temperature gradient
distribution, the flow velocity is larger near the wall and weaker
in the center. The highlighted sections with solid lines in Figure
14 indicate the vortex region. Comparing these results, it may be
concluded that the size of the vortex pair was closely related to
temperature gradient.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(c), (d)
(a), (b)
Fig. 13 Computed temperature gradient along the drawn lines
(shown above) at free surface: (a, c) 5 s, (b, d) 10 s.
Mechanism of outward flow development
In this section, the mechanism of the outward flow
development is discussed based on the results of the three-
dimensional simulation. Figure 15 shows the velocity vectors and
temperature contours in the encircled area around the heating
point when an outward flow developed. Geometry of the
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(c), (d)
(a), (b)
Fig. 14 Computed flow velocity component on the drawn lines
(shown below) at free surface: (a, c) 5 s, (b, d) 10 s.
computational domain is that = 0.1 mm, wm = 0.1 mm, and hm =
0.2 mm. In the meniscus, temperature was uniform in the radial
direction and the flow velocity was very small, and a symmetric
vortex pair emerged outside the meniscus. From these results, the
mechanism of an outward flow development is explained as
follows: (1) Temperature gradient in the radial direction was
almost zero in the meniscus because the meniscus width was very
small. (2) The thermocapillary flow in the radial direction
became very weak near the meniscus. (3) The thermocapillary
flow in the circumferential direction developed according to the
circumferential temperature gradient. (4) An outward flow
developed. Once the outward flow developed, the flow pattern
remained unchanged under the condition of hm/wm >> 1. The
reason for this is that the outward flow causes a steep temperature
gradient towards the film center near the wall. As the size of the
vortex depends on temperature gradient as discussed in Section
3.5, the growth of vortex is suppressed and the circumferential
temperature gradient caused an outward flow. The same
mechanism is applied to Case 3, and the effect of wall curvature
creates a region where the radial temperature gradient is almost
(a)
z 0.2 mm
y
y 0.1 mm x
(b)
z 0.2 mm y
y x
0.1 mm
Fig. 15 Computed flow velocity vectors in the cross-section, and
the temperature distribution color map.
zero. An approximate expression for the one-dimensional
Further, we examined the effect of contact angle. From the unsteady wire heat transfer is developed by the following
numerical results, we see that the meniscus shape at hm/wm >>1 procedure [20]. At first, the deviation is given for the unsteady
leads to the development of an outward flow. Therefore, one may heat conduction in a straight wire. It is assumed that at distance ,
conclude that the contact angle between water and the stainless the temperature gradient T x may be taken as zero.
steel wire must have been small in the space experiment. The The first law of thermodynamics is expressed in following form:
contact angle was measured by S. G. Kandlikar and M. E. Q ww w P (A.1)
Steinke [5], and the value was about 30-70 degree. This wide dt

dt

dt
e (v n)dA
c. s .
edV
t
c.v.
range of values was because of the surface roughness. Q. Zhao
and Y. Liu measured the contact angle as 65.8 degree [22]. with
w ws P

Surface roughness enhances hydrophilic and hydrophobic e (v n)dA 0 (A.2)
c. s .
behavior [21], and the relationship between stainless steel and dt dt
water is hydrophilic. Therefore, its contact angle becomes smaller Then the form of the first law now becomes
according to the surface roughness. In addition, the contact angle Q (A.3)
value must have also affected by temperature and the presence of dt

t c.v.
edV

milk powder. Meniscus keeps a sharp shape at a distance from Assuming that all variables are functions of x only, we express
the wall because the capillary length becomes larger under the heat flux as
microgravity. Capillary length k-1 is defined by the following qx L L (A.4)
expression.

A
udx
t
c T dx
0 t 0
p

The interval from 0 to L will now be divided into two parts, i.e.

k 1 (10) qx L
(A.5)
g A

t 0
c p T dx c p T0 dx

where represents surface tension. Since the g value is very and, since T0 is constant, this expression becomes
small under microgravity, k-1 becomes larger. The capillary qx
c p T dx c p T0 ( L )
(A.6)
length means the length where meniscus is formed. Therefore, a A t 0
larger capillary length under microgravity leads to a larger The integral equation to be solved is now
meniscus. In the case of thin film sustained within the wire frame, qx d d (A.7)
an infinitely large meniscus is not formed because the sticking

A dt 0
c p T dx c p T0
dt
wall height is very small and the thin film has two free surfaces. If the heat flux is specified at the wall, the appropriate
Therefore, a practical meniscus forms around the intersection boundary conditions are
point of the theoretical meniscus surface line which is calculated T T0 at x = (A.8)
from the force balance at the free surface. As a sharp meniscus is T at x =
formed in the space experiment, it is estimated that the contact 0 (A.9)
x
angle in the space experiment was sufficiently small (hm/wm is T F (t )
large enough) to allow the development of an outward flow. at x = (A.10)
x k
where the heat flux at the wall is expressed as a general function
Conclusions F(t).
A numerical simulation study has been carried out to If a parabolic temperature profile is used, the above
explanation the flow direction observed in a thin liquid film in a boundary conditions give
microgravity experiment on the ISS. The consideration of T T
F (t )( x) 2 (A.11)
2k
0
unsteady heat transfer in the solid wire and three-dimensional
flow structures did not explain the development of an outward which, when it is substituted into Eq.(A.7), we obtain
flow. However, in this simulation study the consideration of the d F (t ) 2 F (t ) (A.12)

effects of meniscus and ring curvature well predicted the dt 6k
k
development of an outward flow, and the experimental flow and
directions. It was shown that the thermocapillary flow direction 1
1 t 2 (A.13)
changes under the following conditions when the effect of
meniscus was taken into account:
(t ) 6
F (t ) 0
F (t )dt


hm/wm >> 1 outward flow develops For a constant heat flux of a magnitude q0/A, the resulting
hm/wm 1 inward and outward flow develop expression for (t) is
hm/wm << 1 inward flow develops (t ) 6t (A.14)
When the effect of the solid boundary curvature was When this equation is substituted into Eq. (A.11), we obtain
included, the simulation model predicts an outward flow. The
mechanism of the outward flow development is explained as
follows. Temperature gradient in the radial direction becomes
almost zero in the meniscus, but it is large in the film (near the
meniscus). Then, the thermocapillary flow in the radial direction
in the film becomes very weak in the meniscus, and a vortex pair
emerges due to the large temperature gradient in the film. In
addition, a thermocapillary flow develops in the circumferential
direction due to the temperature gradient in this direction. Finally,
these lead to an outward flow in the film.
The size of the symmetric vortex pair is determined by
temperature gradient, and the vortex size remained limited when
the sharp meniscus shape is considered.

Appendix
Fig A.1 Conceptual diagram of the circular wire
 T T0
q


6t x 2
(A.15)
[10] L. Peng et al., Three-dimensional thermocapillary-buoyancy
flow of silicone oil in a differentially heated annular pool,
A 2k 6t
Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer, 50, 2007, 872-880.
Then Eq. (A.15) is applied for a circular wire ring. A circular
wire conceptual diagram is shown in Fig. A.1. If the wire [11] D. Pettit: Saturday Morning Science Videos (2003).
curvature is negligible, the distance x is expressed as
[12] F. Preisser et al., Steady and oscillatory thermocapillary
x r (A.16)
convection in liquid columns with free cylindrical surface, J.
Finally, the following equation is derived as the temperature
Fluid Mech., 126, 1983, 545-567.
boundary condition:

T T0
q
6t r
2
(A.17)
A 2k 6t
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