Marangoni effect

The Marangoni effect is interfacial flow driven by a surface-tension gradient. Tangential stress balances the surface gradient ${\nabla }_s\gamma$.

For a clean spherical gas bubble with negligible internal dynamic viscosity and thermal conductivity, a weak temperature gradient produces the displayed migration velocity, where ${\gamma }_T=d\gamma /dT$. The exterior Papkovich–Neuber representation can use only the scalar potential $\chi =-a^3\mathbf{U}\cdot \mathbf{r}/(2r^3)$. Its surface normal velocity equals $\mathbf{U}\cdot \mathbf{n}$, and its tangential traction balances minus the surface surface tension gradient from the temperature dipole around an insulating sphere. For the usual ${\gamma }_T<0$ the bubble moves toward warmer liquid. Small Reynolds number, Péclet number, capillary number, and fractional surface-tension variation justify the approximation; surfactants can oppose the temperature-driven Marangoni stress.

Across a fluid interface, the jump in normal traction is the surface tension times curvature, while the tangential traction jump is the surface gradient of surface tension. For one common normal convention,

For an almost spherical inviscid bubble in exterior Stokes flow $\mathbf{Ex}$, let $\gamma ={\gamma }_0-{\gamma }_1(C-C_0)$ and $K=C_0{a}^2/(2D_s)$. The quadrupolar surfactant distribution on a spherical interface makes the tangential velocity ${\mathbf{u}}_s=\alpha {\mathbf{I}}_s\mathbf{Ex}$ satisfyThe Marangoni stress approaches the stress needed to suppress surface motion as $M$ grows. The quadrupolar shape perturbation $r=a(1+\mathbf{n}\cdot \mathbf{Dn})$ isThese expressions require small deformation and small surface Péclet number; large $M$ alone does not justify a small concentration perturbation.

Chemophoresis is the motion of a particle or droplet driven by a gradient in chemical concentration. For a surfactant-coated bubble, adsorption converts the chemical gradient into a Marangoni stress.