Stability of Thermocapillary Convection in Rotating Shallow Annular Pool of Silicon Melt

In order to understand the effect of pool rotation on stability of thermocapillary convection, the critical conditions for the incipience of oscillatory flow in rotating shallow annular pools of silicon melt (Pr = 0.011) are investigated by means of linear stability analysis (LSA) under different pool rotation rates ranging from Ta = 0 to 1,513.9 and under microgravity condition. The results indicate that with increase of Ta numbers, the critical Marangoni for the incipience of hydrothermal wave (HTW) increases, i.e., pool rotation stabilizes the steady axisymmetric thermocapillary convection of silicon melt. The critical azimuthal wave number mc decreases linearly with increase of Ta number when Ta ≤ 378.5. However, when Ta > 378.5, mc almost keeps constant with mc = 34. When Ta < 550 the HTW propagates in the same direction as the pool rotation direction, while it is reversed when Ta > 550.