An Investigation of a Two-Phase, Moving Boundary System, with Convection at the Solid-Liquid Interface.

An analytical and experimental study has been carried out in order to investigate the behavior of a two-phase, solid-liquid system in which the solid phase is subjected to varying heat flux and temperature at its boundaries. The specific geometry chosen for the study was that of a thin solid layer formation on a planar surface which is maintained below the fusion temperature of the liquid. The determination of the phase boundary position was accomplished primarily by a variable nodal system finite difference technique. In addition, an integral solution similar to those frequently used in the calculation of two-dimensional boundary layer flows in fluid dynamics is formulated and compared with the results of the finite difference technique. It is concluded that the integral solution is in many instances as effective a solution technique as the finite difference method. An experimental study was carried out with ice and water in turbulent channel flow in order to test the validity of the mathematical model. The results of the experiment indicate that the model is capable of predicting the position of the phase interface to within limits of accuracy which are acceptable for most engineering applications. It is found that the models inability to account for temperature dependent solid phase properties may have an adverse effect on its performance for substances whose transport properties are highly dependent upon temperature. Author