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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Thermocapillary Convection Space Experiment on the SJ-10 Recoverable Satellite
Published on: March 11, 2020
Experimental investigation on thermocapillary drop migration at large Marangoni number in reduced gravity
Jing-Chang Xie1, Hai Lin, Pu Zhang
1National Microgravity Lab/CAS, Institute of Mechanics, CAS, Beijing 100080, China. jcxie@imech.ac.cn
Abstract:
Results from a space experiment on thermocapillary drop migration conducted on board the Chinese spacecraft ShenZhou-4 are presented in this paper. In the experiment, isolated drops of Fluorinert liquid moved in a matrix liquid of 5cst silicone oil at values of the Marangoni numbers (Ma) ranging up to 5500 and the interferometry images showed the temperature distribution inside the test cell. The drop migration velocity was measured. The experimental results show that the scaled drop migration velocity V/V(YGB) obviously decreases with Ma increasing the values up to 5500. The space experimental results are also compared with those from our early experiments, other space experiments, and some theoretical predictions.
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