Duan Li

Experimental Study on Liquid Free Surface in Buoyant-Thermocapillary Convection

We investigate the surface deformations of buoyant-thermocapillary convection in a rectangular cavity due to gravity and temperature gradient between the two sidewalls. The cavity is 52 mm×42 mm in horizontal cross section, the thickness of liquid layer h is changed from 2.5 mm to 6.5 mm. Surface deformations of h = 3.5 mm and 6.0 mm are discussed and compared. Temperature difference is increased gradually, and the flow in the liquid layer will change from stable convection to unstable convection. Two kinds of optical diagnostic system with image processor are developed for study of the kinetics of buoyant-thermocapillary convection, they give out the information of liquid free surface. The quantitative results are calculated by Fourier transform and correlation analysis, respectively. With the increasing temperature gradient, surface deformations calculated are more declining. It is interesting phenomenon that the inclining directions of the convections in thin and thick liquid layers are different. For a thin layer, the convection is mainly controlled by thermocapillary effect. However, for a thick layer, the convection is mainly controlled by buoyancy effect. The surface deformation theoretically analysed is consistent with our experimental results. The present experiment proves that surface deformation is related to temperature gradient and thickness of the liquid layer. In other words, surface deformation lies on capillary convection and buoyancy convection.

Experimental Investigation of Influence of Interfacial Tension on Convection of Two-Layer Immiscible Liquid

Benard-Marangoni convections of two-layer fluids heated from the bottom are investigated experimentally with a particle imagine velocimetry. The flows are visualized from the side, and various velocity fields near the onset of convection, such as three-layer vortex convective patterns, are observed when the depth ratio varies in a wide range. A new classification of the convective patterns is proposed with more detail than in previous studies. The analysis of the results indicates that the interface tension greatly influences the motion intensities of the bottom and top layers. The dimensionless wave number increases with the Bond number when the motion in the top layer is not more intense than that in the bottom layer, which agrees with the theoretical prediction.

Observation of Diffusion Process of a Water Droplet Immersed in Protein Solution in Microgravity

Pure liquid - liquid diffusion driven by concentration gradients is hard to study in a normal gravity environment since convection and sedimentation also contribute to the mass transfer process. We employ a Mach - Zehnder interferometer to monitor the mass transfer process of a water droplet in EAFP protein solution under microgravity condition provided by the Satellite Shi Jian No 8. A series of the evolution charts of mass distribution during the diffusion process of the liquid droplet are presented and the relevant diffusion coefficient is determined.

In Situ Observation of NaCl Crystal Growth by the Vapor Diffusion Method with a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

Vapor diffusion experiments with different thicknesses of oil barriers are observed by a real-time optical diagnostic system consisting of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, a microscope and an image processor. Spatiotemporal analysis is first employed to extract the absolute concentration evolution and supersaturation during the entire crystallization process. The nucleation and crystal growth processes are then analyzed. It is found that the crystallization process can be easily classified into four stages in our experiments, according to the analysis of interferograms and the absolute concentration curve. This can help us understand the details of crystal growth. The rule of quality change of crystals with increasing thickness of oil barriers is also analyzed, and could be interpreted by the absolute concentration variation and crystallization phase diagram.

An in-situ Observation on Initial Aggregation Process of Colloidal Particles near Three-Phase Contact Line of Air, Water and Vertical Substrate

The self-assembling process near the three-phase contact line of air, water and vertical substrate is widely used to produce various kinds of nanostructured materials and devices. We perform an in-situ observation on the self-assembling process in the vicinity of the three phase contact line. Three kinds of aggregations, i.e. particle-particle aggregation, particle-chain aggregation and chain-chain aggregation, in the initial stage of vertical deposition process are revealed by our experiments. It is found that the particle-particle aggregation and the particle-chain aggregation can be qualitatively explained by the theory of the capillary immersion force and mirror image force, while the chain-chain aggregation leaves an opening question for the further studies. The present study may provide more deep insight into the self-assembling process of colloidal particles.