Modeling, Simulation and Engineering Scale-up Procedures for Design of CVD Reactors

The research program, initiated in 1989 by the Laboratory for Ceramic and Reaction Engineering LCRE, was aimed towards the development of generic processes for growing thick films deposited by CVD techniques. The application of thick-film technology includes the manufacturing of optical windows and ceramic plates, fabrication of optical domes and refractory crucibles, production of refractory metal tubes, ceramic fibers, etc. The objective of this research was to understand the complex phenomena which could occur in a CVD system, including problems of reactive fluid flow, instability of the deposition process at the interphase fluid-solid, stability of the nucleation process on the solid surface, and generation and development of stresses due to thermal gradients and growth-induced mechanisms. New ways of increasing the rate of deposition were also contemplated. Scale-up of CVD reactors for the applications previously mentioned, has not received much attention in the literature. LCRE has since been working on such Chemical Engineering procedures as the gathering and measuring of necessary data, and a priori simulation of laboratory bench- scale units and scale-up to pilot-plant size