DNS of thermocapillary migration of deformable droplets

Abstract

A nonuniform distribution of temperature field on a fluid-fluid interface leads to surface tension gradients, which induce shear stresses that produce the motion of a drop in the direction of the temperature gradient. This phenomenon is known as thermocapillary flow or Marangoni migration. In addition to its importance from a fundamental point of view, thermocapillary flows play an important role in micro gravity environments (Subramanian and Balasubramaniam, The motion of bubbles and drops in reduced gravity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001, [1]) and micro-devices (Darhuber and Troian, Annu Rev Fluid Mech 37:425–455, 2005, [2]).