Thermocapillary effects in a suspension of droplets

A liquid droplet immersed in a fluid subjected to a temperature gradient tends to move in the direction of higher temperature due to the temperature dependence of surface tension. In a suspension of many droplets the motion is determined by an interplay of hydrodynamic and thermal interactions. If the droplets are sufficiently small, then Brownian motion is important. A generalized Smoluchowski equation, which describes the change of the probability distribution of configurations under the influence of hydrodynamic and thermal interactions, is proposed.