Thermocapillary convection in a liquid under the action of high-power laser radiation

An investigation is made of the structure of hydrodynamic flows which form in a liquid bath as a result of inhomogeneous heating of the free surface of the liquid by laser radiation. It is shown that a liquid flow characterized by Reynolds numbers Re≫1 may appear when the laser power density is high. The changes in the temperature and vorticity then occur in a narrow layer near the bath walls, whereas outside this boundary layer the flow is isothermal and it is characterized by a constant curl of the velocity. At high Peclet numbers the process of convective heat transfer reduces considerably the temperature drops in the bath compared with the case of a liquid at rest.