Modeling of liquid encapsulated gallium melts

Liquid encapsulation crystal growth from the melt plays an important role in space processing. Use of an encapsulant may avoid evaporation of volatile components and may control thermocapillary flow, which becomes important in microgravity. In the present work the fluid physics of encapsulated liquid gallium is studied analytically and numerically in preparation to forthcoming experiments. It is shown that flow in the viscous encapsulant is essentially negligible and that liquid encapsulation reduces flow velocities in the encapsulated electronic melt. Flow velocity in the gallium is the main parameter in the studies.