Thermo-solutal convection with soret effect

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The thermodiffusion phenomenon, also known as thermal diffusion or the Soret effect (in liquids), describes the coupling between a temperature gradient and the resulting mass flux in a multi-component system. While thermodiffusion in gases is being widely investigated and is well explained by the kinetic theory, thermodiffusion in liquids has also given rise to increasing scientific and engineering interest in recent years. For example, it has been postulated that thermodiffusion is integral to the analysis of the composition distribution in oil reservoirs. Some researchers have speculated that the thermodiffusion of biomacromolecules may play a role in the origin of life. The proposed research firstly focuses on the continual investigation of solutal thermal convection during the growth process of Silicon Germanium (SiGe) material using the Travelling Solvent Method (TSM). Secondly, the research aims to further extend the study of thermodiffusion convection in an inhomogeneous porous cavity. With respect to the former portion of the proposed research, TSM is a relatively new and promising technique for the production of high quality semiconductor materials. Achieving high purity SiGe semiconductor material is a pivotal aspect of the production of photodetectors and solar cells. We propose to use magnetic fields in order to suppress buoyancy convection, thus allowing for a detailed study of thermodiffusion in Si/SiGe system. The obtained numerical/theoretical results will be compared with undergoing experimental research at Dalhousie University. With respect to the latter part of the proposed research, the investigation will be extended to study fluid flow, heat and mass transfer in inhomogeneous porous media filled with different binary hydrocarbon mixtures at high pressure. The molecular and thermodiffusion coefficients for different mixtures will be estimated as function of the temperature and concentration at each point of the finite element grid. Then the numerical results will be compared with the experimental setup that is currently at the Universite de Pau in France.