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I am trying to synthesize MoSe$_2$ crystals in a furnace with two temperature zones.

The problem is that the oven is not very wide, so the temperature of the hottest zone influences the temperature of the cold zone. This is visible in the Excel chart I obtained from the practice, in which I placed the temperature of the hot zone at 800ºC, the temperature of the cold zone at 375ºC and the thermocouple type K in a certain position.

The minutes of the experiment are shown on the x-axis and the temperature is shown on the Y-axis. The blue line is the temperature data for the hot zone over time, the orange line is the temperature data for the cold zone over time and the gray line is the temperature data for the type K thermocouple at over time.

enter image description here

The objective is for the thermocouple to be stable close to 300ºC and 50ºC before reaching 800ºC (that is, in this case, at 750ºC), the thermocouple must measure a temperature of at least 290ºC.

The problem is that as the oven takes a long time to cool down, I can only draw a temperature profile per day, which makes the progress of my thesis very slow. I do not know the location of the thermocouples inside the oven, which indicate the temperature of the cold zone and the hot zone, so it is necessary to make several attempts to find the perfect position to reach a temperature close to 300ºC in the thermocouple.

The influence of the hot zone in the cold zone is visualized by the existence of a "hump" in the graph of the temperature of the cold zone (orange line). In addition, the furnace has Argon gas necessary for the synthesis of the crystals.

Question:

  • Is there a way to simulate the oven computationally to know how it influences one temperature zone in the other?

  • And is there any way to simulate the oven in the computer in order to be able to move a type K thermocouple inside it to try to find the perfect position where it reaches 300ºC and maintains that temperature?

  • What programs do you recommend to draw this graph and others like this superimposed for my thesis? I didn't want to present the charts in Excel.

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This sounds like a very standard problem for multiphysics applications. The oven is comprised of a heating element, insulation, and argon gas inside it. You will have both radiative and convective transfer of heat inside the oven, and you'll need to model both to find out how the temperature distribution develops. Here is a demonstration of COMSOL for a conventional oven, which is the same problem in principle.

However, simulations might not be the best answer, since you would need to know your oven very accurately in order to set up the simulations correctly. Easier options would probably be putting in more thermocouples or other instruments so that you can track the development of the temperature around the oven. A heat camera might also be an option.

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