Natural convection in a liquid-encapsulated molten semiconductor with a steady magnetic field

This paper treats the buoyant convection in a layer of boron oxide, called a liquid encapsulant, which lies above a layer of a molten compound semiconductor (melt) between cold and hot vertical walls in a rectangular container with a steady horizontal magnetic field B. The magnetic field provides an electromagnetic damping of the molten semiconductor which is an excellent electrical conductor but has no direct effect on the motion of the liquid encapsulant. The temperature gradient drives counter-clockwise circulations in both the melt and encapsulant. These circulations alone would lead to positive and negative values of the horizontal velocity in the encapsulant and melt, respectively, near the interface. The competition between the two buoyant convections determines the direction of the horizontal velocity of the interface.