Instability of the Marangoni convection in a liquid bridge with liquid encapsulation under microgravity condition

Linear stability theory is used to analyze the stability of the basic state solution of Marangoni convection in a liquid bridge with liquid encapsulat ion. By processing the linear disturbance equations numerically, stability analysis can be evolved to a complex general eigenvalue problem. Inverse it eration algorithm combined with LZ algorithm is employed to solve the compl ex generalized eigenvalue problem. The results show that the stability of t he system can be enhanced greatly by choosing reasonable matching parameter s of the two fluid layers. The preferred mode of instability is axial wave number alpha = 2, 3 and 4, which means that the system is more sensitive to the disturbance with larger wave lengths. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.