An experimental study of oscillatory thermocapillary convection in small cylindrical containers with a heating wire placed along the center axis is performed by investigating the flow structures and temperature distributions under various conditions. To supplement the flow visualization the surface is scanned using an infrared imager. Here 2 cS viscosity (Pr=27) silicone oil is used as the test fluid. It is observed that beyond a certain temperature difference between the container wall and the heating wire, a distinctive unsteady flow pattern appears. This unsteady phenomenon is identified as oscillatory thermocapillary. After the onset of oscillations the flow structure becomes nonaxisymmetric and wave motion is observed at the free surface. It is shown that the critical temperature difference is independent of container dimensions if the aspect ratio is fixed.
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Kamotani et al. (1992) studied this question.
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