This study explores the thermal Marangoni hydrodynamics
in an immiscible,
binary-liquid thin-film system, which is open to the gas phase at
the top and rests on a heated substrate with wavy topology. The sinusoidal
contour of the heated (constant-temperature) substrate results in
temperature gradients along the liquid–liquid and liquid–gas
interfaces, causing fluctuations in the interfacial tension, ultimately
leading to Marangoni hydrodynamics in the liquid–liquid films.
This type of flow is notable in liquid film coatings on patterned
surfaces, which are widely used in MEMS/NEMS applications (Weinstein,
S. J.; Palmer, H. J. Liquid Film Coating: Scientific Principles
and Their Technological Implications; 1997, pp 19–62;
Palacio, M.; Bhushan, B. Adv. Mater.
2008, 20, 1194–1198) and biological cell sorting
operations (Witek, M. A.; Freed, I. M.; Soper, S. A. Anal.
Chem.
2019, 92, 105–131).
We solve the coupled Navier–Stokes and energy equations by
the perturbation technique to obtain approximate analytical solutions
and an understanding of the thermal and hydrodynamic transport in
the system domain. Our study explores the parametric influence of
the relative thermal conductivity of the liquid layers (k), film thickness ratio (r), and the system’s
Biot number (Bi) on these transport phenomena. While
the strength of the thermal Marangoni effect that is generated reduces
with an increase in the relative thermal conductivity (k), the impact of r depends on the k value. We observe that for k > 1 the intensity
of Marangoni flow increases with r; however, the
opposite holds for k < 1. Furthermore, larger
values of Bi induce higher resistance to the vertical
conduction from the wavy substrate compared to the convection resistance
offered at the top surface, destructively interfering with the ability
of the patterned substrate to generate interfacial temperature fluctuations
and hence weakening the Marangoni flow.