Abstract: The Instability and transient process of the thermocapillary convection in the halffloating zone have been investigated in recent 20 years. In the present paper, the critical parameters of the thermocapillary oscillatory convection are given, and the effects of geometric configuration (aspect ratio, volume ratio), physical parameters and heat-transfer parameter on thecritical Marangoni number are analyzed. The results obtained from the experiments, both on theground and under microgravity, and by the linear...