Abstract: Improving deposition performance of final product SiO₂ particles is highly significant in the outside vapor deposition (OVD) process for the production of high-quality optical fibers. To evaluate deposition performance, the particle deposition efficiency and average particle diameter on the target surface, are primarily studied. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was applied to simulate this complex multiphase flow system for capturing typical characteristics of flow and chemistry such as velocity and temperature distributions. The analysis on operating conditions, including the raw gas flow rate, the mass fraction ratio of SiCl₄/O₂, flow rates of O₂ and H₂, and types of the carrier gas, was conducted. The predicted findings indicate that there is an optimal raw gas flow rate to yield the peak deposition efficiency. The particle deposition efficiency increases with increasing SiCl₄/O₂ mass fraction ratio, while it declines as flow rates of O₂ or H₂ rises. In addition, using O₂ as carrier gas yields larger deposition efficiency compared to H₂ and N₂, which present less uniform deposition of silica particles on the target surface. This analysis provides a better understanding of influences of the operating parameters on SiO₂ particle deposition, which are crucial for the process optimization and product quality control.

Outside vapor deposition process; Multiphase flow; Eulerian–Eulerian framework; Particle nucleation and growth.