Effects of Sidewall Heat Flux on Thermocapillary Droplet Migration

Abstract

In order to study droplet motion in a stagnant fluid, a 2D axisymmetric CFD model based on volume of fluid (VOF) is developed using Ansys Fluent software. Under the influence of the Marangoni flow, the droplet travels from the configuration's bottom to its top. The obtained results have showed good agreement with literature data. By increasing the temperature top, the droplet arrives the top more quickly for the adiabatic sidewall case. The same result has been observed when the sidewall heat flux is augmented from 0 to 30 W/m<sup>2</sup>. Actually, the droplet arrival time has decreased by 66% for Q = 30 W/m<sup>2</sup> compared to Q = 0 W/m<sup>2</sup>. Independently of Q, the scaled velocity diminished with Marangoni number increase. A global correlation regrouping the scaled velocity with sidewall heat flux and Marangoni number has been proposed.