<title>Preliminary study of the influence of Grashof and Reynolds numbers on the flow and heat transfer in an MOCVD reactor</title>

Abstract

The combined effect of Grashof and Reynolds numbers on the flow and heat transfer in a Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) reactor is investigated both experimentally and numerically. Experimental data for pure hydrogen, helium, and nitrogen with induction heating are obtained at the Chemical Vapor Deposition Facility for Reactor Characterization at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The test facility measures the velocity field inside the reactor using a three dimensional laser velocimeter. Temperatures of the fused silica walls are recorded using an infrared camera. Each gas is tested over a range of flow rates. These experimental runs are repeated using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics code which models the flow and heat transport throughout the reactor. The model accounts for the mechanisms of conjugate heat conduction, convection, and radiation. The analytical results are compared with the experimental data and used to assess the heat and mass transfer in the system as a function of the Richardson number, Ri = GrIRe2.