CFD simulation of laser enhanced modified chemical vapor deposition process

The modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process is one of the most widely used processes to manufacture the optical fiber preforms. There have been several experimental and numerical studies to establish that thermophoresis is the dominant mechanism for the transport of silica particles to the preform wall. There also exists several modification of this process to increase the deposition efficiency in the MCVD process. In this work we have carried out computational fluid dynamics simulation of the coupled equations of mass, momentum, energy and species transport in the laser enhanced thermophoretic deposition process using the conservative finite volume scheme. The effect of laser heating on different parameters such as thermophoresis, conversion rate and deposition efficiency is examined in this study. The presence of laser heating alters the velocity and temperature profile that leads to increase in the conversion and deposition efficiency due to high thermophoresis. The results of numerical simulations are in support of experimental and analytical studies. Our numerical simulations using the conservative finite volume scheme show that deposition efficiency increases with increasing power of the laser.

Research highlights▶ CFD simulations were performed to study the laser enhanced MCVD process. ▶ The effect of laser heating on thermophoretic deposition of silica particles was studied. ▶ Deposition efficiency increases with increase in the laser power. ▶ Deposition efficiency increases with decrease in the band width of laser beam.