Attempt to study Marangoni flow of low-Pr-number fluids using a liquid bridge of silver

In order to experimentally investigate the Marangoni flow of low-Prandtl-number fluids in a liquid bridge geometry under the condition of small Marangoni numbers close to the critical Marangoni numbers Ma_c1 and Ma_c2, the formation of a liquid bridge of silver was attempted. The available temperature difference between the upper and lower rods to obtain a small Marangoni number, such as Ma = 50, was calculated for a 5 mm high liquid bridge for several molten metals. For molten silver, the possible temperature difference was estimated to be 16 K, whereas, for molten silicon, this was 0.38 K, which is unrealistic for the purposes of experiments. For silver, a free surface can be obtained in the wide range of oxygen partial pressures, whereas, for molten silicon, the available oxygen partial pressure range is very small; equilibrium oxygen partial pressure for SiO₂ formation is as low as 1.1 × 10⁻¹⁴ Pa. A liquid bridge of molten silver was successfully prepared and temperature oscillation was observed; the estimated Marangoni number was 160 and oscillation frequency was 0.26 Hz.