THERMOCAPILLARY MOTION OF A DEFORMABLE DROP TOWARD A PLANAR WALL

The thermocapillary migration of a deformable drop moving normal to a planar wall is considered. The temperature is assumed to be constant at the wall and approaches a linear field far from the wall. Inertial effects as well as thermal convection are neglected. All physical parameters save surface tension are assumed to be constant and the motion is assumed to be quasi-steady and axisymmetric. A numerical solution procedure based on the boundary integral method is applied. In particular, Green's functions appropriate to the planar wall configuration are used for both the thermal and fluid dynamic portions of the problem. The effects of viscosity ratio, thermal conductivity ratio, and dimensionless rate of change of surface tension with temperature are discussed. Degree of deformation is found to increase with increasing effective capillary number. © 1990.