Suppression of Marangoni convection of silicon melt by a non-contaminating method

A set of numerical simulation of the effect of the gas shearing flow over a silicon melt free surface on Marangoni convection under microgravity condition was conducted by using finite element method. For given gas channel width, Marangoni number and aspect ratio a remarkable reduction of Marangoni convection in silicon liquid bridge can be achieved by choosing the optimal gas velocity in accordance with the correlation proposed in the paper. The effectiveness of the reduction of the gas flow under different conditions shows that, in some cases, Marangoni convection reduction of 99% can be realized by this non-contaminating method.