Effect of viscosity on thermocapillary breakdown of a falling liquid film

Abstract

Thermocapillary breakdown of a liquid film flowing due to gravity over a vertical plate with a heater of 150×150 mm is studied in a wide range of liquid properties (in particular, dynamic viscosity at the initial temperature varies from 0.91·10^-3 to 16.9·10^-3 Pa·s) and film Reynolds number (Re = 0.15-53.5). It is found that liquid viscosity has a significant effect on the threshold heat flux corresponding to film breakdown. To take into account the effect of liquid properties, the breakdown criterion traditionally used in literature was modified. This allowed successful generalization of all data obtained.