The analyticity of solutions of the Stefan problem

The Stefan problem of a semi-infinite body with arbitrarily prescribed initial and boundary conditions is studied. One of the objectives of the paper is to investigate the analyticity of the solutions. For this purpose, the prescribed initial and boundary conditions are considered to be series of fractional powers of their arguments. It is found that the exact solutions of the problem for various forms of the initial and boundary conditions can be established in series of parabolic cylinder functions and time t. Existence and convergence of the series solutions are studied and proved. The present solutions include the known exact solutions as special cases. On the basis of the present solutions, the question of the analyticity of solutions of the Stefan problem, raised by Rubinstein in his book, can be answered. Conditions for analyticity of the solutions with various initial and boundary conditions are fully discussed.     

液粒凝固过程的动力学理论

在平均场的概念下对液态粒子的凝固过程提出了一个简化的液-固-气-雾(LSGF)数学模型,并在小过冷度的条件下,求出了有关初值问题的一致有效渐近解. 结果表明:整个动力学过程可以分为两个相互联结的时间阶段. (1) 液粒初始温度分布的瞬态过渡阶段. 在这个阶段,凝固尚未正式启动,只是系统内的温度从任意给定的初始分布迅速调整到某一特定空间分布. (2)液粒向固粒转变阶段. 在这一阶段,液-固两相开始分离,相界面逐渐向液粒中心传播,直至液相完全消失. 进而以铜为例,讨论了液态粒子在不同生长条件与物理参数下的凝固时间与凝固过程中的温度分布的演化规律.      

Numerical Approaches for microscopic modelling of solute redistribution during solidification of binary alloys

In the present study, two numerical approaches for single-domain modelling of microsegregation during solidification of binary alloys are presented. In the first approach, the concentration jump at the moving solid/liquid interface is formulated using a volumetric term and a Boolean function. The governing solute redistribution equation, valid for the whole domain comprising the solid and liquid regions, is derived in terms of the liquid phase composition. The effects of microstructure coarsening on microsegregation has been described and included in the model. In the second approach, the continuum mixture theory is utilized to derive a single domain solute redistribution equation in terms of the mixture composition. The solidification front motion and dendrite arm coarsening effects are accommodated by considering the representative elementary volume to consist of solid, interdendritic, and extradendritic liquid phases. Numerical solutions have been obtained using a control-volume based finite-difference method with a fixed grid. Good agreement has been observed between the predictions of the present fixed-domain models and the exact analytical and experimental results.     

Irregular Behavior of Solutions for Fisher’s Equation

This paper is concerned with the irregular behavior of solutions for Fisher’s equation when initial data do not decay in a regular way at the spatial infinity. In the one-dimensional case, we show the existence of a solution whose profile and average speed are not convergent. In the higher-dimensional case, we show the existence of expanding fronts with arbitrarily prescribed profiles. We also show the existence of irregularly expanding fronts whose profile varies in time. Proofs are based on some estimate of the difference of two distinct solutions and a comparison technique. Dedicated to Professor Pavol Brunovsky on his 70th birthday.     

Torsion of cylindrically orthotropic elastic circular bars with radial inhomogeneity: some exact solutions and end effects

Torsion of elastic circular bars of radially inhomogeneous, cylindrically orthotropic materials is studied with emphasis on the end effects. To examine the conjecture of Saint-Venant’s torsion, we consider torsion of circular bars with one end fixed and the other end free on which tractions that results in a pure torque are prescribed arbitrarily over the free end surface. Exact solutions that satisfy the prescribed boundary conditions point by point over the entire boundary surfaces are derived in a unified manner for cylindrically orthotropic bars with or without radial inhomogeneity and for their counterparts of Saint-Venant’s torsion. Stress diffusion due to the end effect is examined in the light of the exact solutions.     

Axisymmetric solidification in a long cylindrical mold

Using a new embedding technique, short time exact analytical solution of a two-dimensional axisymmetric problem of solidification of a superheated melt in a long cylindrical mold is presented in this paper. The prescribed flux could be space and time dependent. The method of solution is simple and is applicable to a variety of problems and consists of assuming suitable fictitious initial temperatures for some suitable fictitious extensions of the actual regions. The numerical results indicate that even a small solidified thickness can affect the initial temperature of the melt appreciably.     

Wall Boundary Layers for Maxwell Liquids

Flows of viscoelastic liquids at high Weissenberg number exhibit stress boundary layers near walls. These boundary layers are caused by the memory of the fluid: while particles at the wall remain in their position, particles at some distance from the wall move a long distance within one relaxation time if the Weissenberg number is high. Since the stresses depend on the flow history, this causes a steep boundary layer to form. A rescaling of the variables exploiting the thinness of this boundary layer can be used to derive a reduced set of boundary layer equations. This paper addresses the question of existence of solutions for these boundary layer equations. Using an implicit function argument, we prove the existence of a large class of solutions which arise from spatially periodic perturbations of uniform shear flow. The solutions we find can be characterized by the shear rate outside the boundary layer, which can be prescribed arbitrarily. Accepted: September 27, 1999     

Non-Rayleigh Convection Caused by Ground Surace Topography

Non-Rayleigh convection is studied in aquifers, where the lateral variations of the temperature field are caused by the ground surface. Analytical solutions for the stream function, the Darcy velocities and the excess water pressure are found for a confined, rectangular and homogeneous aquifer situated at a given depth. The Darcy velocity field and the excess pressure are also found for an unconfined aquifer with a prescribed fluid potential at the top surface of the aquifer. Approximate solutions for excess pressure and Darcy velocities are found for the unconfined aquifer with a free surface. General estimates for the convective Darcy velocities are derived from these solutions. It is also shown that non-Rayleigh flow is unlikely in an unconfined aquifer.     

Gasdynamic laser power at high pressure

The problem of relaxing mixture flow in a carbon dioxide gasdynamic laser is solved. Infrared radiation-power density generated is calculated for gas pressures at the nozzle input of 25 and 100 atm. An increase in power with increase in initial pressure is observed for suitable selection of mixture composition and initial temperature.     

Investigation of double-diffusive convection during the solidification of a binary mixture (NH4Cl–H2O) in a trapezoidal cavity

The solidification of binary mixture (NH₄Cl–H₂O) inside a trapezoidal cavity is investigated experimentally in this study. The effect of the initial concentration of ammonium chloride (0–19.8%) and boundary temperatures (−30 to 0°C) on the solidification process was investigated. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique was used for the visualization of the dynamic field in the melt. Thirty-two thermocouples were used to monitor the temperature distribution inside the cavity and on the cooling walls. The convective flow field, the temperature distribution, the frozen layer thickness and the moving solid/liquid interface were obtained for different initial concentrations of ammonium chloride and various boundary temperatures. The results obtained in the course of this study reveal that: (1) the process of solidification is slower with an increase in initial concentration levels of the binary solution: as the concentration increases, the time needed to get the same thickness of frozen layer increases; (2) an increase in the initial concentration of ammonium chloride solution reduce significantly the temperature in the melt; and (3) the initial concentration play a significant role in the evolution of convection flow patterns.     

Moderate Time Scale Finite Amplitude Analysis of Large Stefan Number Convection in Rotating Mushy Layers

We investigate the steady state convection amplitude for solutal convection occurring during the solidification of a rotating mushy layer in a binary alloy system for a new Darcy equation formulation. We adopt a large far field temperature and assume that the initial composition is very close to the eutectic composition. The linear stability analysis showed that rotation stabilised solutal convection. The results of the weak non-linear analysis of stationary convection indicates the presence of Hopf bifurcation, associated with the oscillatory mode, developing at Ta = 3.     

Momentum and heat transfer of a special case of the unsteady stagnation-point flow

This paper investigates the unsteady stagnation-point flow and heat transfer over a moving plate with mass transfer,which is also an exact solution to the unsteady Navier-Stokes(NS)equations.The boundary layer energy equation is solved with the closed form solutions for prescribed wall temperature and prescribed wall heat flux conditions.The wall temperature and heat flux have power dependence on both time and spatial distance.The solution domain,the velocity distribution,the flow field,and the temperature distribution in the fluids are studied for different controlling parameters.These parameters include the Prandtl number,the mass transfer parameter at the wall,the wall moving parameter,the time power index,and the spatial power index.It is found that two solution branches exist for certain combinations of the controlling parameters for the flow and heat transfer problems.The heat transfer solutions are given by the confluent hypergeometric function of the first kind,which can be simplified into the incomplete gamma functions for special conditions.The wall heat flux and temperature profiles show very complicated variation behaviors.The wall heat flux can have multiple poles under certain given controlling parameters,and the temperature can have significant oscillations with overshoot and negative values in the boundary layers.The relationship between the number of poles in the wall heat flux and the number of zero-crossing points is identified.The difference in the results of the prescribed wall temperature case and the prescribed wall heat flux case is analyzed.Results given in this paper provide a rare closed form analytical solution to the entire unsteady NS equations,which can be used as a benchmark problem for numerical code validation.     

Comparison of multicomponent fuel droplet vaporization experiments in forced convection with the Sirignano model

The vaporization of multicomponent fuel droplets was studied experimentally in a heated flow and the results were compared to the model proposed by Abramzon and Sirignano. The droplet was suspended on a permanent holder which was set up in a thermal wind-tunnel. This wind-tunnel was fitted with a video recording system and an infra-red camera. The period during which the droplet was suspended on the holder before the opening of the hot air flow damper was recorded. This first sequence corresponds to the droplet vaporization in natural convection, whose initial experiment conditions, especially diameter, temperature, composition of the droplet, are well known. Then the damper was turn on, and the sequence of forced convection begun. The initial diameter of the droplet was recorded by the video system. The other initial conditions of this second sequence cannot be determined experimentally. The distribution of temperature in the droplet and the surface temperature, the mass fraction distribution in the droplet and the surface mass fraction were unknown. These unknown parameters were determined by coupling our experiment with a model using “the film concept” in natural convection. Experimental results were compared with the calculations and found satisfactory, in natural convection as well as in forced convection initiated by this method. The method was tested in the case of a fuel mixture droplets (heptane–decane) for different initial concentrations and variable durations of the sequence in natural convection.     

Dynamic characteristics of spherically converging detonation waves

The spherically converging detonation wave was numerically investigated by solving the one-dimensional multi-component Euler equations in spherical coordinates with a dispersion-controlled dissipative scheme. Finite rate and detailed chemical reaction models were used and numerical solutions were obtained for both a spherical by converging detonation in a stoichiometric hydrogen-oxygen mixture and a spherically focusing shock in air. The results showed that the post-shock pressure approximately arises to the same amplitude in vicinity of the focal point for the two cases, but the post-shock temperature level mainly depends on chemical reactions and molecular dissociations of a gas mixture. While the chemical reaction heat plays an important role in the early stage of detonation wave propagation, gas dissociations dramatically affect the post-shock flow states near the focal point. The maximum pressure and temperature, non-dimensionalized by their initial value, are approximately scaled to the propagation radius over the initial detonation diameter. The post-shock pressure is proportional to the initial pressure of the detonable mixture, and the post-shock temperature is also increased with the initial pressure, but in a much lower rate than that of the post-shock pressure. Zonglin Jiang is presently a visiting professor at McGill University, Canada.     

Network simulation method for solving phase-change heat transfer problems with variable thermal properties

 The transient heat conduction equation in a finite slab undergoing phase change (two-phase problem of melting and solidification), with isothermal, adiabatic or convective boundary conduction is studied by the network simulation method; solid phase conductivity and specific heat are assumed to be dependent on temperature. Ablation, as a particular case, is also analysed. A network model is established for a cell and boundary conditions are added to complete the whole network model. No restrictions exist, as to the kinds of linear and non-linear boundary conditions, Stefan number values or the initial conditions (when hypotheses concern of the Stefan problem, numerical and exact solutions are compared for a large interval of Stefan numbers; simulation values show good agreement). Movement of the solid–liquid boundary and thermal fields are determined in all cases. Received on 10 May 2000 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Heat transfer on a cylinder in accelerated slip flow

The axisymmetric laminar boundary layer flow along the entire length of a semi-infinite stationary cylinder under an accelerated free-stream is investigated. Considering flow at reduced dimensions, the boundary layer equations are developed with the conventional no-slip boundary condition for tangential velocity and temperature replaced by a linear slip-jump boundary condition. Asymptotic series solutions are obtained for the heat transfer coefficient in terms of the Nusselt number. These solutions correspond to prescribed values of the momentum and temperature slip coefficients and the index of acceleration. Heat transfer at both small and large axial distances is determined in the form of series solutions; whereas at intermediate distances, exact and interpolated numerical solutions are obtained. Using these results, the heat transfer along the entire cylinder wall is evaluated in terms of the parameters of acceleration and slip.     

The Sub-Harmonic Bifurcation of Stokes Waves

Steady periodic water waves on the free surface of an infinitely deep irrotational flow under gravity without surface tension (Stokes waves) can be described in terms of solutions of a quasi-linear equation which involves the Hilbert transform and which is the Euler-Lagrange equation of a simple functional. The unknowns are a 2π-periodic function w which gives the wave profile and the Froude number, a dimensionless parameter reflecting the wavelength when the wave speed is fixed (and vice versa). Although this equation is exact, it is quadratic (with no higher order terms) and the global structure of its solution set can be studied using elements of the theory of real analytic varieties and variational techniques. In this paper it is shown that there bifurcates from the first eigenvalue of the linearised problem a uniquely defined arc-wise connected set of solutions with prescribed minimal period which, although it is not necessarily maximal as a connected set of solutions and may possibly self-intersect, has a local real analytic parametrisation and contains a wave of greatest height in its closure (suitably defined). Moreover it contains infinitely many points which are either turning points or points where solutions with the prescribed minimal period bifurcate. (The numerical evidence is that only the former occurs, and this remains an open question.) It is also shown that there are infinitely many values of the Froude number at which Stokes waves, having a minimal wavelength that is an arbitrarily large integer multiple of the basic wavelength, bifurcate from the primary branch. These are the sub-harmonic bifurcations in the paper's title. (In 1925 Levi-Civita speculated that the minimal wavelength of a Stokes wave propagating with speed c did not exceed 2πc ²/g. This is disproved by our result on sub-harmonic bifurcation, since it shows that there are Stokes waves with bounded propagation speeds but arbitrarily large minimal wavelengths.) Although the work of Benjamin & Feir} and others [9, 10] has shown Stokes waves on deep water to be unstable, they retain a central place in theoretical hydrodynamics. The mathematical tools used to study them here are real analytic-function theory, spectral theory of periodic linear pseudo-differential operators and Morse theory, all combined with the deep influence of a paper by Plotnikov [36]. Accepted: December 6, 1999     

A Braking System for Tests with a Prescribed Deceleration Pulse

Tests with a prescribed deceleration pulse are fundamental to the development and certification of crashworthy structures. At the Politecnico di Milano Laboratory for the Safety of Transports these tests are carried out using a horizontal impact-sled facility. Test articles are mounted on a trolley which is launched down a rail and then arrested by means of a braking system that allows prescribed deceleration pulses to be obtained. The oleo-pneumatic braking system customarily used in these tests is difficult to use and user-defined time-histories of the deceleration pulse cannot be obtained. In an effort to overcome these limits, a new braking system was developed. The idea was to arrest the trolley by means of a number of beams that varied in length and that were positioned at variable distances from each other. Experimental tests and numerical simulations were carried out in parallel to verify the feasibility of the new system and improve on the initial design. A mathematical model and genetic algorithm were also developed and used as part of a method to find the test set-up that allowed user-defined deceleration pulses to be obtained. A full-scale test with the deceleration pulse prescribed for small airplane seat certification was carried out to assess the performance of the braking system. The test revealed a weakness of the braking system that was then further developed before being put into full operational service.     

Planar solidification of a warm flowing-liquid under different boundary conditions

Planar solidification of a warm flowing liquid with the convective heat transfer to the growing solid layer, has been analysed for the boundary conditions of constant temperature, constant heat flux and convective heat flux at the surface respectively. The mathematical formulation of the problem resulted in a coupled set of two differential equations in temperature and solid thickness as function of position, time and the problem parameters. Analytical expressions for the temperature distribution within the growing solid layer, the rate of solidification and the solidification time are obtained. The perturbation techniques employed here is simple and straight forward in contrast with the earlier techniques. Good agreement between the experimental results and the present solutions is obtained for the convective heat flux boundary condition. The results of this analysis are useful in the design and analysis of experiments dealing with freezing/melting in one dimension. The role of the parameter Stefan number which is small for phase change materials, is discussed in context with the storage of thermal energy.     

Large-Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Flow Around a Finite-Height Wall-Mounted Square Cylinder Within a Thin Boundary Layer

The paper describes the results of a computational study of the auto-ignition of a fuel spray under Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) conditions, a technique used to reduce the production of NO_x. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is performed, and the stochastic field method is used for the solution of the joint sub-grid probability density function (pdf) of the chemical species and energy. The fuel spray is n-heptane, a diesel surrogate and its chemical kinetics are described by a reduced mechanism involving 22 species and 18 reaction steps. The method is applied to a constant volume combustion vessel able to reproduce EGR conditions by the ignition of a hot gas mixture previously introduced into the chamber. Once the prescribed conditions are reached the fuel is then injected. Different EGR conditions in terms of temperature and initial ambient chemical composition are simulated. The results are in good overall agreement with measurements both regarding the ignition delay times and the lift-off heights.