The influence of convective heat transfer on flow stability in rotating disk chemical vapor deposition reactors

Flow and heat transfer of NH{sub 3} and He were studied in a rotating disk system with applications to chemical vapor deposition reactors. Flow field and disk heat flux were obtained over a range of operating conditions. Comparisons of disk convective heat transfer were made to infinite rotating disk results to appraise uniformity of transport to the disk. Important operating variables include disk spin rate, disk and enclosure temperatures, flow rate, composition, pressure, and gas mixture temperature at the reactor inlet. These variables were studied over ranges of the spin Reynolds number, Re{omega}; disk mixed convection parameter, MCP{sub w}; and wall mixed convection parameter, MCP{sub w}. Results obtained for NH{sub 3} show that increasing Re{omega} from 314.5 to 3145 increases the uniformity of rotating disk heat flux and results in thinner thermal boundary layers at the disk surface. At Re{omega}=314.5, increasing MCP{sub d} to 15 leads to significant departure from the infinite disk result with nonuniform disk heat fluxes and recirculating flow patterns; flow becomes increasingly complex at larger values of MCP{sub d}. At Re{omega} of 3145, results are closer to the infinite disk for MCP{sub d} up to 15. For large negative (hot walls) and positive (cold walls) values of MCP{sub w}, flow recirculates and there is significant deviation from the infinite disk result; nonuniformities occur at both values of Re{omega}. The influence of MCP{sub w} on flow stability is increased at larger MCP{sub d} and lower Re{omega}. To determine the influence of viscosity and thermal conductivity variation with temperature, calculations were made with He and NH{sub 3}; He transport property variation is low relative to NH{sub 3}. Results show that the flow of NH{sub 3} is less stable than that of He as MCP{sub d} is increased for MCP{sub w}=0 and Re{omega}=314.5. 16 refs., 15 figs., 1 tab.