Numerical study of influences of buoyancy and solutal Marangoni convection on flow structures in a germanium-silicon floating zone

This paper presents a numerical study of Marangoni flows in a floating zone of germanium-silicon crystals, which was performed by using a commercial finite element program FIDAD^TM. The numerical results point out that for fluids with a small Pr number the influence of buoyancy forces cannot be ignored in the numerical model. Furthermore, the competition between the thermocapillary (TC) and solutocapillary (SC) flows in the floating zones was qualitatively examined. If the TC flow is as strong as that in the Si-rich floating zone, the SC flow may be restricted to the bottom area near the free surface. Otherwise, the SC flow may overcome the TC flow and induce a surface transfer of species. The numerical predictions agree well with the previous experiment results. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)