Badanie procesów topnienia i krzepniȩcia w warunkach konwekcji swobodnej przy wystȩpowaniu wielopłaszczyznowych frontów fazowych

An analysis is carried out for the solidification and melting of water in the parallelepiped-shaped enclosure. Two opposite, vertical walls of the enclosure are isothermal at temperatures T_s. The other four walls are nominally insulators of finite thermal diffusivity. For the solidification, cold walls temperature is set below the freezing point (T_c= -10°C or - 15°C), the ice layers start to grow there. For the melting, hot walls temperature is equal to T_h =+10°C. Due to the temperature difference between the isothermal walls and ice natural convection develops in the cavity. For flow visualisation, seeding with thermochromic liquid crystals is used. This allows instantaneous measurement of the velocity and temperature for 2D cross-sections of the cavity, using Particle Image Velocimetry and Particle Image Thermometry.