Numerical simulation of laminar natural convection in a laterally heated vertical cylindrical enclosure: application to crystal growth

Laminar natural convection has been studied in a laterally heated vertical cylindrical enclosure with a free insulated surface and a centrally located constant temperature wall at the top. These conditions are a simplification of the conditions existing in a Czochralski crystal pulling system. The laminar, axisymmetric flow of a Newtonian, constant physical properties fluid under Boussinesq’s approximation has been considered. Governing equations in primitive variable form are solved numerically by control volume method. SIMPLE algorithm due to Patankar has been used for the numerical simulation. The effects of the constant wall heat flux boundary condition at the side wall have been investigated whereas the bottom wall is considered to be insulated. Streamlines and isotherms are presented for various Rayleigh numbers and Prandtl numbers. Heat flux vectors through the melt are plotted for selected cases. The axial velocity and temperature variations at different horizontal sections of the crucible have been presented graphically to explain the transport processes inside the crucible. It has been observed that in case of low Pr and high Ra, flow separation occurs at the vertical wall of the crucible which leads to an oscillatory flow as Ra increases. The investigation has been extended to the oscillatory regime of flow in the zone of supercritical Rayleigh numbers and some unsteady results are also presented. Finally a heat transfer correlation has been developed for steady-state case.