Thermocapillary Free Boundaries in Crystal Growth

摘要

A two-dimensional free-boundary problem arising from the steady thermocapillary flow in a viscous fluid, whose motion is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the heat conduction equation, is considered in the context of the open boat technique in crystal growth. The problem is formulated in a nondimensional form, producing six characteristic numbers. For the computation of the free boundary three iterative methods were used. Numerical experiments show the influence of the characteristic numbers on the flow field variables and on the shape of the free boundary.