On Synchronization of Particles with the Wave in Thermocapillary Oscillatory Flows

Abstract

Aiming at observing stable particles accumulation structures (PAS), a set of experiments have been performed for studying dynamics of solid particles in an unsteady flow in a non-isothermal liquid bridge made of n-decane with Pr = 13.5. The particles are 8% denser than the liquid; they range from approximately 20 microns to 100 microns in radius. Some of these particles have successfully formed a PAS when the liquid bridge was subject to a temperature difference of about 1.5 times larger than the critical value, at which the flow becomes oscillatory. The accumulation of the particles has allowed us to visualize the structure of the supercritical flow. It is described by m = 2 wave number, which was confirmed by computer simulations. Modeling of particles’ motion in the thermocapilary flow has been performed using the simplified Maxey-Riley equation. The results of the modeling obtained in the present work are in a very good agreement with the experimental observations.