Characteristics of surface oscillation in thermocapillary convection

► Surface oscillation in thermocapillary convection has been investigated experimentally. ► Displacement-sensor is used to measure the position of the liquid surface dynamically. ► Hilbert-Huang transform is chosen to analyze the experiment data which is nonlinear and non-stationary. ► The characteristics of surface oscillation have been obtained. ► The relationship of the characteristics with the temperature difference and liquid layer depth has been discussed in details.