Control of Thermo- and Solutocapillary Flows in FZ Crystal Growth by High-Frequency Vibrations

Abstract

The paper deals with the numerical investigation of the possibilities to control convective flows in the liquid bridge in zero gravity conditions applying axial vibrations. The surface tension is assumed to be dependent both on the temperature and on the solute concentration. The free surface deformations and the curvature of the phase change surfaces are neglected but pulsational deformations of the free surface are accounted for. The first part of the paper concerns axisymmetric steady flows. The calculations show that the evolution of convective flow with the variation of thermal Marangoni number at a fixed value of the solutal Marangoni number is accompanied by the hysteresis phenomenon, which is related to the existence of two stable steady regimes in a certain parameter range. One of these regimes is thermocapillary dominated, it corresponds to the two-vortex flow, and the other is solutocapillary dominated, it corresponds to the single-vortex flow. Under vibrations, the range of the Marangoni numbers where hysteresis is observed becomes narrower and is shifted to the area of larger values. The second part of the paper concerns the stability of axisymmetric thermo-and solutocapillary flows and the transition to three-dimensional regimes. Significant mutual influence of flows generated by each process on the stability of the other is discovered. Stability maps in the parametric plane for the thermal Marangoni number, the solutal Marangoni number, are obtained for different values of vibration parameters. It is shown, that vibrations exert a stabilizing effect, increasing critical Marangoni numbers for all modes of instability. However, this effect is different for different modes and at high vibration intensity destabilization is possible. Consequently, vibrations can modify the scenario of the transition to the three-dimensional mode.