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Investigations on the Thermocapillary Migration of Liquid Lubricants at Different Interfaces

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Abstract

Thermocapillary migration describes an interfacial phenomenon that liquids can spontaneously move from the warm to the cold regions on nonuniformly heated solids. However, it is unknown how liquids react at various interfaces subjected to a thermal gradient. In this study, migration of liquid lubricants at the free surface, the plate/plate interface, and the sphere/plate interface is investigated. The results show that liquid lubricants can easily migrate at the free surface and the plate/plate interface, and the velocity at the free surface is much faster than that at the plate/plate interface. Interestingly, liquid lubricants maintain at the sphere/plate interface for a long time, and a continuous loss of a thin liquid film is observed at the cold side on the plate. The factors that influence the migration performances at these interfaces are examined. Numerical simulations are performed to reveal the mechanism and differences among them.

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Abbreviations

A rt , A at :

Relative and absolute tolerances

Ca :

Capillary number

C p :

Specific heat capacity at constant pressure

E k :

Error estimate for the degree of freedom k

F :

Volume force vector

H, W :

Eight and width of the computational domain

M:

Number of physical fields

Ma :

Marangoni number

N j :

Number of degrees of freedom in field \(j\)

P :

Pressure

Q :

Heat source

R :

Strain-rate tensor

S(x) :

Gas/liquid interface

T :

Temperature

T ref :

Reference ambient temperature

T Δ :

Thermal gradient

T 0 :

Reference temperature of liquid

U :

Velocity vector

V :

Solution vector

d :

Mean liquid thickness

l, g :

Liquid and gas

h :

Gap between the plate/plate or sphere/plate interfaces

k :

Fluid thermal conductivity

q :

Heat flux vector

x, z:

Horizontal and vertical coordinates

zmax :

Maximum value of z at a specific x

Φ:

Level set function

Ω1 :

Gas subdomain

Ω2 :

Liquid subdomain

a :

Fluid thermal diffusivity

θ :

Contact angle

β :

Slip length

ε :

Interface thickness

γ :

Surface tension of liquid

γ T :

Surface tension coefficient of liquid

μ :

Dynamic viscosity

κ :

Re-initialization parameter

ρ :

Fluid density

τ :

Viscous stress tensor

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51805252), and Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China (2019M651822).

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Author notes

  1. Zhejun Chong and Qingwen Dai have contributed equally to this work and should be considered as co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology On Helicopter Transmission, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Zhejun Chong, Qingwen Dai, Wei Huang & Xiaolei Wang

Authors
  1. Zhejun Chong
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  2. Qingwen Dai
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  3. Wei Huang
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  4. Xiaolei Wang
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Correspondence to Qingwen Dai.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on International Nanotribology Forum: Chiang Rai 2020.

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Chong, Z., Dai, Q., Huang, W. et al. Investigations on the Thermocapillary Migration of Liquid Lubricants at Different Interfaces. Tribol Lett 68, 59 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-020-01299-5

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