Study of melting mechanism of a solid material in a liquid

Experiments utilizing ice/water and frozen ethanol/water have been conducted as an analog physical model to study the factors influencing the melting of solids in liquid metals. A coupled thermal-composition-fluid flow mathematical model based on the commercial software package ANSYS CFX V12.1 has also been developed to analyze the experimental results and provide further insight into the factors influencing melting. The results of both the experimental measurements and numerical analyses reveal that thermal and compositional driven buoyancy flows and surface tension (Marangoni) flows, when present, can have a significant impact on solid melting behavior in a system where forced convection is not significant. The various flow drivers influence the development of the interfacial boundary layer and impact on heat and mass transfer. Thus application of empirical-based heat and mass transfer coefficients will be prone to error and may need to be modified depending on the particular aspects of the system under analysis.