Abstract
Thermocapillary convection is induced by the temperature difference ΔT between two cylindrical rods sustaining a liquid bridge. The induced flow is usually visualized by using fine particles as tracers. Under certain flow conditions, the tracer particles were found to exhibit so called particle accumulation structure (PAS), after Schwabe et al. On the previous study by authors revealed that the particles gathered along a closed single path, which was named Twisted-loop PAS (TL-PAS). The TL-PAS exhibited several types of closed path lines. In the present study the relation between the position of the TL-PAS and the shape of particle-free zone was detected. It was found that the particle size has a lager influence than the density upon the formation time of the TL-PAS.
