Analysis of natural convection melting of a subcooled pure metal

Journal Article · · Numerical Heat Transfer. Part A, Applications; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/10407789308913660· OSTI ID:6339666

Lacroix, M ^[1]; Arsenault, A ^[2]

---

1. Univ. de Sherbrooke, Quebec (Canada)
2. Univ. du Quebec, Chicoutimi (Canada)

A numerical study is reported of melting of a pure metal inside a vertical rectangular enclosure with both natural convection in the liquid and conduction in the solid. A stream function/vorticity/temperature formulation is employed in conjunction with boundary-fitted coordinates for mapping the irregular shape of the moving solid-liquid interface. Twenty numerical experiments are conducted for Rayleigh numbers ranging from 8.99 [times] 10[sup 4] to 1.44 [times] 10[sup 6] and subcooling parameters ranging from 0.5 to 4.0. The results show that the combined effects of natural convection in the melt and subcooling of the solid considerably affect the melting of a pure metal. Subcooling significantly reduces the melting rate and leads to a steady state for which the position and the shape of the solid-liquid interface are dictated by the subcooling parameter and the Rayleigh number. A correlation is proposed for the heated-wall Nusselt number at steady state as a function of the Rayleigh number and the subcooling parameter.

• OSTI ID: 6339666
• Journal Information: Numerical Heat Transfer. Part A, Applications; (United States), Journal Name: Numerical Heat Transfer. Part A, Applications; (United States) Vol. 23:1; ISSN 1040-7782; ISSN NHAAES
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
CAVITIES
CONFIGURATION
CONVECTION
COOLING
DATA
ELEMENTS
ENERGY TRANSFER
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HEAT TRANSFER
INFORMATION
INSTABILITY
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICS
MELTING
METALS
NATURAL CONVECTION
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
NUMERICAL DATA
NUSSELT NUMBER
ORIENTATION
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
RECTANGULAR CONFIGURATION
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
SUBCOOLING