BINARY FLUID MIXTURE AND THERMOCAPILLARY EFFECTS ON THE WETTING CHARACTERISTICS OF A HEATED CURVED MENISCUS
2000 IMELE Winter Conference Proceeding

David M. Pratt and K. D. KIHM

An investigation of the thermocapillary effects on a heated, evaporating meniscus formed by binary fluid mixtures of wetting liquids in a vertical capillary pore system has been conducted.  Experiments were conducted to primarily observe the wetting characteristics of the binary fluid mixture and how they are affected by the dynamics associated with the heating of and evaporation from a meniscus.  The results have demonstrated that interfacial thermocapillary stresses arising from liquid-vapor interfacial temperature gradients that degrade the ability of the liquid to wet the pore can be counteracted by introducing naturally occurring concentration gradients associated with distillation in binary fluid mixtures without affecting the heat transport capacity of the system.

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