Experimental and numerical study of the Marangoni convection due to localized laser heating (Q2574013)

Thermal inhomogeneities on a liquid-gas interface change the surface tension, influence the heat-mass transfer in the adjacent area, and, by means of the convective flow, affect the entire volume. This process is called the Marangoni effect and has various technological applications in metallurgy, material science and other branches. This paper begins by presenting an experimental study of the process, concluding in section 3 to a theoretical study. The corresponding mathematical model is derived, its steady-state solutions are studied together with their stability. The section concludes with the study of the nonlinear analysis of thermocapillary convection. In section 4, the numerical results from the previous theoretical analysis are presented and compared with the experimental results.