Dipolar thermocapillary motor and swimmer

TL;DR

This paper introduces a theoretical and experimental study of thermocapillary dipoles in Hele-Shaw cells, demonstrating their use as microfluidic motors and swimmers driven by temperature gradients.

Contribution

It provides a novel combined theoretical and experimental framework for thermocapillary dipoles, enabling controlled fluid motion and swimmer propulsion at fluid interfaces.

Findings

Multiple dipoles can be superposed to create complex flow patterns

Confined dipoles can act as microfluidic motors

Principles enable thermocapillary swimmer propulsion

Abstract

We present a theoretical description and an experimental realization of a thermocapillary dipole induced in a Hele-Shaw cell under a steady temperature gradient. We demonstrate experimentally how several dipoles can be superposed in order to create various 2D flow patterns, and how a confined dipole can act as a thermocapillary motor for driving fluids in microfluidic circuits. In addition, we show how the principles behind the thermocapillary dipole can be applied in order to drive thermocapillary swimmers on fluid-liquid interfaces.