The relative contributions of thermo-solutal Marangoni convections on flow patterns in a liquid bridge

•Numerically investigated the Marangoni convections effect on the melt convection.•We considered the thermal and solutal Marangoni convections in the melt.•The flow pattern and azimuthal wave number were changed due to the competing contributions.

A numerical simulation study was carried out to investigate the relative contributions of thermal and solutal Marangoni convections on transport structures in a liquid bridge under zero gravity. The liquid bridge in the model represents a three dimensional half-zone configuration of the Floating Zone (FZ) growth system. Three dimensional field equations of the liquid zone, i.e. continuity, momentum, energy, and diffusion equations, were solved by the PISO algorithm. Computations were performed using the open source software OpenFOAM. The numerical simulation results show that the flow field becomes three-dimensional and time-depended when the solutal Marangoni number is larger than the critical value. It was also shown that not only flow patterns but also the azimuthal wave number (m) changes due to the competing contributions of thermal and solutal Marangoni convective flows.