Abstract
Faraday surface instability measurements of the critical acceleration, , and wave number, , for standing surface waves on a tetracosanol () melt exhibit abrupt changes at , above the bulk freezing temperature. The measured variations of and vs temperature and driving frequency are accounted for quantitatively by a hydrodynamic model, revealing a change from a free-slip surface flow, generic for a free liquid surface (), to a surface-pinned, no-slip flow, characteristic of a flow near a wetted solid wall (). The change at is traced to the onset of surface freezing, where the steep velocity gradient in the surface-pinned flow significantly increases the viscous dissipation near the surface.
- Received 25 November 2004
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.184504
©2005 American Physical Society