Three-dimensional Numerical Simulation of Thermal and Solutal Marangoni Convection in a Liquid Bridge under Zero-gravity Field

Abstract

A numerical simulation study was carried out to investigate the effects of thermal and solutal Marangoni convections (thermosolutal Marangoni convection) on transport structures in a liquid bridge under zero gravity. The liquid bridge in the model represents a three dimensional half-zone configuration of the Floating Zone (FZ) growth system. Three dimensional field equations of the liquid zone, i.e. continuity, momentum, energy, and diffusion equations, were solved by the PISO algorithm. Computations were performed using the open source software OpenFOAM. The numerical simulation results show that the flow field becomes three-dimensional and time-depended when the solutal Marangoni number is larger than the critical value. It was also shown that not only flow patterns but also the azimuthal wave number (m) changes due to the competing contributions of thermal and solutal Marangoni convective flows.