Momentum and Thermal Boundary-layer Thickness in a Stagnation Flow Chemical Vapor Deposition Reactor

Explicit expressions have been derived for momentum and thermal boundary-layer thickness of the laminar, uniform stagnation flows characteristic of highly convective chemical vapor deposition pedestal reactors. Expressions for the velocity and temperature profiles within the boundary layers have also been obtained. The results indicate that, to leading order, the momentum boundary-layer thickness is inversely proportional to the square root of the Reynolds number, while the thermal boundary-layer thickness is inversely proportional to the square root of the Peclet number. Values computed using the approximate expressions are compared directly with numerical solutions of the equations of motion and thermal energy equation, for a specific set of conditions typical of diamond chemical vapor deposition. Because values of the Lewis number do not vary significantly from unity for many different chemical vapor deposition systems, the expression derived here for thermal boundary-layer thickness may be used directly as an approximate concentration boundary-layer thickness.