Numerical simulation heat transfer by natural convection in liquid metal with a sinusoidal temperature

Abstract

This study focuses on the numerical simulation of heat transfer by natural convection in a rectangular enclosure, filled with a liquid metal (low Prandtl number) partially heated from below with a sinusoidal temperature. The value of the study lies in its involvement in the crystal growth for the manufacture of semiconductors and electronics cooling. Indeed, the occurrence of convection during crystal growth can lead to in homogeneities that lead to striations and defects that affect the quality of the crystals obtained by the Bridgman techniques or Chochrawlski. Temperature of the oscillations, due to the instabilities of the convective flow in the liquid metal, also induces non-uniform cooling in the solidification front. Convection is then studied in order to reduce it. A modelling of the problem in two dimensions was conducted using Comsol computer code that is based on the finite element method, by varying the configuration of the control parameters, namely, the Rayleigh number, the nature of fluid (Prandtl number) and amplitude of temperature on heat transfer rate (Nusselt number) on convective structures that appear.