Stability of thermocapillary flow in cylindrical liquid bridges: Rotation of the hot disk

Abstract

The thermocapillary flow in a differentially heated cylindrical liquid bridge under steady rotation of the hot disk is considered in the limit of zero capillary number. Steady flow states and their three‐dimensional stability are calculated numerically. It is shown that the vortex breakdown caused by the rotation is strongly affected by the thermocapillary flow. A linear stability analysis reveals that the most dangerous perturbations are oscillatory with azimuthal wavenumber m = 1 or m = 2 depending on the parameters.