LINEAR-STABILITY ANALYSIS OF THERMOCAPILLARY CONVECTION IN LIQUID BRIDGES USING A MIXED FINITE DIFFERENCE-SPECTRAL METHOD

A linear stability analysis has been employed to investigate the thermocapillary instability occurring in a nonisothermal liquid bridge. The steady, axisymmetric basic state was solved numerically using a finite difference method. A mixed finite difference-spectral method, combining the advantages of both methods, was then used to reduce the linear disturbance equations to an eigenvalue problem. The critical Marangoni numbers for axisymmetric disturbances are predicted for small Prandtl numbers and various aspect ratios. The effect of surface heat transfer is also investigated. The present results are compared with energy-theory results and with the results of other experiments.