Effect of the melting system sizes on the temperature and concentration combined melting of a vertical ice plate in a rectangular cavity

This paper is concerned with the melting of a vertical ice plate into a calcium chloride aqueous solution inside a rectangular cavity. The initial temperature of the ice plate and the mixture are both −5°C and the initial concentration of the mixture is 20 wt%. The effect of the liquid height H, the width W, the aspect ratio of the liquid region A (=H/W) and the initial ice plate thickness δ _i on the transient melting mass per unit melting front area, M, is mainly considered numerically. M keeps a similar value in spite of H varied for A = 1 at early melting stage, however, becomes considerably influenced by H as melting progresses. The ice plate melts influenced by A for H = 20 mm fixed at early melting stage due to the fast development of the stagnant region and M decreases with increasing A (=1∼ 10). A dimensionless correlation of the transient melting mass, the aspect ratio and the melting time was presented under the restricted condition of H = 20 mm.