Surface configurations and wave patterns of thermocapillary convection onboard the SJ10 satellite

Abstract

A fluid experiment was conducted on China’s SJ10 satellite to assess the instability of thermocapillary convection under microgravity. Oscillations of thermocapillary convection in an annular pool were investigated when the difference in temperature exceeded a certain threshold. Dynamics and transitions of the wave pattern were observed using an infrared camera. This work is concerned with the effect of the surface configuration on the wave patterns. There are 3 types of surface configurations that depend on the volume ratio: Vr < 0.77 (zone 1), 0.77 < Vr < 1 (zone 2), and Vr > 1 (zone 3). An irregular local wave occurs at Vr < 0.65, and a regular azimuthal wave occurs at Vr > 0.65. We observed the regular wave with the wavenumber m = 3 in zone 1 and zone 3 and the competition between m = 3 and m = 4 in zone 2. The nonlinear dynamics of traveling waves, standing waves, and counterpropagating waves were studied. The standing wave appears near the onset and transitions to the traveling wave. With a similar mechanism, counterpropagating waves with m = 3 and m = 4 occur in some cases at the onset. Additionally, counterpropagating waves also act as a transitional mode when the traveling wave transitions from m = 4 to m = 3. The traveling wave is very stable, but it develops into standing waves or Benjamin-Feir instability under highly supercritical conditions.