Numerical Simulation of Temperature Fields in a Three-Dimensional SiC Crystal Growth Furnace with Axisymmetric and Spiral Coils

Three-dimensional numerical simulation platform for silicon carbide crystal growth furnace was established using C programing language, where a physical model of the furnace was built based on cylindrical coordinates; governing equations for electromagnetic and temperature fields were discretized by finite volume method; radiation characteristics were studied with the help of S2S model (surface to surface radiation model); and the least distance method was proposed to check radiation faces visibility efficiently. LU decomposition algorithm based on graphic processing unit (GPU) technology was developed to accelerate the solving process of surface to surface radiation. Then the radiation heat transfer in silicon carbide crystal (SiC) growth chamber and temperature field of silicon carbide growth furnace were studied quantificationally at I = 1250 A and F = 16 kHz. The effects of coil structures (axisymmetric and spiral) on temperature field and its gradient distributions were investigated by standard deviation method. The simulation results demonstrate that spiral electromagnetic coil generates non-axisymmetric temperature field easily; the radiation heat flux is 102~103 times more than conduction heat flux, radiation heat transfer is helpful to increase temperature evenness; the spiral temperature field on the SiC crystal cross-section reduces the poor homogeneity of temperature gradient, which will cause crystal to generate large defects.