Thermocapillary convection around gas bubbles: an important natural effect for the enhancement of heat transfer in liquids under microgravity.
In the presence of a temperature gradient at a liquid-gas or liquid-liquid interface, thermocapillary or Marangoni convection develops. This convection is a special type of natural convection that was not paid much attention in heat transfer for a long time, although it is strong enough to drive liquids against the direction of buoyancy on Earth. In a microgravity environment, however, it is the remaining mode of natural convection and supports heat and mass transfer. During boiling in microgravity it was observed at subcooled liquid conditions. Therefore, the question arises about its contribution to heat transfer without phase change. Thermocapillary convection was quantitatively studied at single gas bubbles in various liquids, both experimentally and numerically. A two-dimensional mathematical model described in this article was developed. The coupled mechanism of heat transfer and fluid flow in pure liquids around a single gas bubble was simulated with a control-volume FE-method. The simulation was accompanied and compared with experiments on Earth. The numerical results are in good accordance with the experiments performed on Earth at various Marangoni numbers using various alcohols of varying chain length and Prandtl numbers. As well as calculations on Earth, the numerical method also allows simulations at stationary spherical gas bubbles in a microgravity environment. The results demonstrate that thermocapillary convection is a natural heat transfer mechanism that can partially replace the buoyancy in a microgravity environment, if extreme precautions are taken concerning the purity of the liquids, because impurities accumulate predominantly at the interface. Under Earth conditions, an enhancement of the heat transfer in a liquid volume is even found in the case where thermocapillary flow is counteracted by buoyancy. In particular, the obstructing influence of surface active substances could be observed during the experiments on Earth in water and also in some cases with alcohols.
Betz
J
J
mail@johannbetz.de
Straub
J
J