Droplet meniscus motion of thermocapillary pumping in a closed microchannel with external heating

This paper investigates the heating process of the thermocapillary pumping (TCP), which can be used to cyclically displace a discrete liquid column within closed-ended micro-channels and generate power by a microcapillary heat engine. A predictive model is developed to predict the meniscus variation of the discrete columns. The meniscus profiles are modeled with Young-Laplace equation and the Navier-Stokes equations are used to simulate the flow inside the liquid phase. The numerical results obtained from the model show that for systems with lower Weber number and lower Reynolds number, longer duration of heating period is required.