Numerical investigation of the thermocapillary flow around a deformable bubble on the hot wall

The thermocapillary flows generated by the surface tension gradients on the bubble surface have been studied numerically. The finite difference scheme with a body-fitted coordinate transformation which converts the irregular physical region to a rectangular computational region with given coordinate lines which coincident with the current boundary surfaces, is constructed to solve the Navier-Stoke's equations and the energy equation. The shape of bubble surface is located iteratively. The effects of the Reynolds, Prandtl, and Capillary numbers on the flow field and the temperature distribution are considered. The buoyancy force may play an important role on thermocapillary flows for the larger Grashof number.