Author(s)

G.Vieira, S. L. Braga & D. Gobiir

Abstract

Ice melting driven by natural convection in the vicinity of the density maximum G.Vieira' , S. L. Braga* & D. Gobiir* 'Mechanic Engineering Department - UCP, Brazil 'Materials and Mechanic Engineering Department - IME, Brazil ^Mechanic Engineering Department - PUC, Brazil 7608 - CNRS - Paris VI, France Abstract A numerical investigation is presented concerning the melting problem of a vertical ice layer in the presence of horizontal temperature gradients. The main heat transfer mechanism is due to natural convection in water near the density maximum. The solution procedure uses a front tracking method which allows us to solve the fluid flow problem and the interface motion separately. 1 Introduction The phenomena involving solid-liquid phase change are associated with many practical applications of current engineering interest and also in geophysics. Among them, there are, for example, energy storage systems using phase change materials (Stampa and Braga [1]), thermal envir

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