Marangoni Convection

Marangoni Convection

Subject

Self-induced Marangoni convection of evaporating alcohols inside capillary tubes.

Start/end dates

End May 2013

Description

We characterise Marangoni convection of evaporating alcohols inside capillary tubes with powerful experimental techniques such as micro-Particle Image Velocimetry, InfraRed thermography and Digital Holographic Microscopy.

Results

We have recently observed and characterised Marangoni instabilities near the interface by tracking a tracer particle with Digital Holographic Microscope and found that the instabilities are oscillatory periodic. We also conducted experiments on the onset of Marangoni convection in low viscosity silicon oil. Additionally, we performed fluidic tests on alcoholic-water solutions and found that the evaporation rate, the average speed of a tracer in the Marangoni vortex and the tracer spinning frequency all decrease by the increase of the water content in the solution.