Effect of Argon Gas Flow on the Thermal Field in a Directional Solidification System for Multi-Crystalline Silicon

Directional Solidification System (DSS) is the commonly used casting station in the solar industry. In order to better understand the casting process, we carried out global simulations of heat transfer to investigate effect of argon gas flow on the thermal field in a directional solidification system for multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si). The effect of argon gas flow on the global heat transfer and the melt convection are investigated. It was found that the heat transfer at the melt free surface due to the gas convection can not be neglected, though the argon gas flow contributes little to the global heat transfer at most radiative surfaces.