Analysis of melting in the presence of natural convection in the melt region

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1977 · J. Heat Transfer; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3450736· OSTI ID:5261541

Sparrow, E M; Patankar, S V; Ramadhyani, S

An analysis of multidimensional melting is performed which takes account of natural convection induced by temperature differences in the liquid melt. Consideration is given to the melt region created by a heated vertical tube embedded in a solid which is at its fusion temperature. Solutions were obtained by an implicit finite-difference scheme tailored to take account of the movement of the liquid-solid interface as melting progresses. The results differed decisively from those corresponding to a conventional pure-conduction model of the melting problem. The calculated heat transfer rate at the tube wall decreased at early times and attained a minimum, then increased and achieved a maximum, and subsequently decreased. This is in contrast to the pure conduction solution whereby the heat transfer rate decreases monotonically with time. The thickness of the melt region was found to vary along the length of the tube, with the greatest thickness near the top. This contrasts with the uniform thickness predicted by the conduction solution. These findings indicate that natural convection effects, although unaccounted for in most phase change analyses, are of importance and have to be considered.

• Research Organization: Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.
• OSTI ID: 5261541
• Journal Information: J. Heat Transfer; (United States), Journal Name: J. Heat Transfer; (United States) Vol. 99:4; ISSN JHTRA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640420* -- Fluid Physics-- Properties & Structure of Fluids-- (-1987)
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
CONVECTION
ENERGY TRANSFER
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
HEAT TRANSFER
ITERATIVE METHODS
MELTING
NATURAL CONVECTION
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
TUBES