ON THE INDUCTION CRITERION OF THE MARANGONI CONVECTION AT THE GAS LIQUID INTERFACE/

Some spreading solutes were found to be effective in enhancing the abs orption rate by provoking interfacial turbulence at the gas-liquid sur face. In this work, the induction criterion of the Marangoni convectio n is explored experimentally and theoretically by using aqueous soluti ons of normal alcohols and surfactants as spreading liquids. The exper imental results show that aqueous solutions of methanol, ethanol, n-pr opanol, n-butanol, and n-pentanol may induce significant interfacial t urbulence, and, on the other hand, aqueous solutions of n-hexanol, n-o ctanol, SDS, DTMAC, and Triton X-100 do not provoke noticeable interfa cial turbulence. A dimensionless Marangoni number, Ma, based an film t hickness delta is satisfactorily developed to evaluate the potentialit y of a spreading Liquid to produce interfacial turbulence. The critica l Marangoni number, Ma, c, for the occurrence of the Marangoni convect ion is also determined.