Onset of hexagons in surface-tension-driven Benard convection
Abstract
High resolution laboratory experiments with large aspect ratio are being conducted for thin fluid layers heated from below and bounded from above by a free surface. The fluid depths are chosen sufficiently small (less than 0.06 cm) so that surface tension is the dominant driving mechanisms; the Rayleigh number is less than 5 for the results reported here. Shadowgraph visualization reveals that the primary instability leading to hexagons is slightly hysteretic (approximately 1 percent). Preliminary measurements of the convection amplitude using infrared imaging are also presented.
- Publication:
-
2nd Microgravity Fluid Physics Conference
- Pub Date:
- August 1994
- Bibcode:
- 1994mfp..conf...33S
- Keywords:
-
- Benard Cells;
- Fluid Dynamics;
- Heat Transfer;
- Hexagons;
- Interfacial Tension;
- Marangoni Convection;
- Microgravity;
- Buoyancy;
- Capillary Flow;
- Infrared Imagery;
- Rayleigh Number;
- Shadowgraph Photography;
- Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer