EXPERIMENTS ON THERMOCAPILLARY INSTABILITIES

▪ Abstract This review summarizes recent experimental studies of instabilities in free-surface flows driven by thermocapillarity. Two broad classes are considered, depending upon whether the imposed temperature gradient is perpendicular (Marangoni-convection instability) or parallel (thermocapillary-convection instability) to the free surface. Both steady and time-dependent instabilites are reviewed in experiments employing both large- and small-aspect-ratio geometries of various symmetries.