THE LIQUID BRIDGE CONFIGURATION AND EFFECTS OF BUOYANCY IN THERMOCAPILLARY CONVECTION
热毛细对流的液桥几何位形及浮力效应

The effects of gravity and thermocapillary convection in the liquid bridge with different aspect ratio L/D are studied in the present paper. Two flow cells appear in the liquid bridge. If L/D is longer, however, the flow pattern is not necessarily associated with the thermocapillary oscillatory convection. In order to simulate the space microgravity situation on the ground laboratory, the height of the liquid bridge must be smaller than, for example, 1.5mm. The convection and thermal transportation in a liquid bridge in microgravify environment can be estimated according to the experimental results on the ground, for the distribution of flow field and temperature in microgravity environment is between the cases of upper rod heated and lower rod heated, respectively, on the ground.