Thermocapillary effects in a suspension of droplets

✍ Scribed by B.U. Felderhof

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 380 KB
• Volume: 235
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-4371
• DOI: 10.1016/s0378-4371(96)00327-5

✦ Synopsis

A liquid droplet immersed in a fluid subjected to a temperature gradient tends to move in the direction of higher temperature due to the temperature dependence of surface tension. In a suspension of many droplets the motion is determined by an interplay of hydrodynamic and thermal interactions. If the droplets are sufficiently small, then Brownian motion is important. A generalized Smoluchowski equation, which describes the change of the probability distribution of configurations under the influence of hydrodynamic and thermal interactions, is proposed.