Thermocapillary convection in a free liquid layer in the presence of an adjacent gas flow

The nonstationary motions of a free heat-conducting liquid layer under conditions of weightlessness are investigated analytically and numerically. To describe the dynamics of a layer with free boundaries subjected to nonhomogeneous heating and to the action of an external gas phase, a special class of the solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations is used. The 2D solutions are characterized by a linear dependence of the longitudinal component of velocity on the longitudinal coordinate. The results allow demonstrating a behavior of free liquid films and to control the mechanisms of the layer deformations at the normal and anomalous thermocapillary effects.