Numerical simulation of incompressible flow driven by density variations during phase change

E. Mcbride, J. C. Heinrich, D. R. Poirier

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

A change in density during the solidification of alloys can be an important driving force for convection, especially at reduced levels of gravity. A model is presented that accounts for shrinkage during the directional solidification of dendritic binary alloys under the assumption that the densities of the liquid and solid phases are different but constant. This leads to a non-homogeneous mass conservation equation, which is numerically treated in a finite element formulation with a variable penalty coefficient that can resolve the velocity field correctly in the all-liquid region and in the mushy zone. The stability of the flow when shrinkage interacts with buoyancy flows at low gravity is examined.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)787-800
Number of pages14
JournalInternational Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids
Volume31
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 15 1999

Keywords

  • Density variations
  • Incompressible flow
  • Low gravity
  • Phase change

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computational Mechanics
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics

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