Natural convection flow with solidification between two vertical plates filled with a porous medium

Quasi-steady solidification between two vertical flat plates filled with a saturated porous medium has been investigated. The medium is homogeneous and isotropic. The convection flow of liquid takes place in the porous medium in the variable space between the two walls. One of the vertical walls is set to a temperature lower than the solidification temperature of the medium and therefore a frozen crust is formed on this wall. The second wall has a high temperature then the fusion temperature of the medium. The problem has been simplified by assuming laminar flow and the Brinkman and the Oberbeck–Bousinesq’s approximations. The results are presented in terms of the velocity for different properties of the porous medium. Various velocities are displayed in dependence of the Rayleigh and Darcy numbers. The study indicates that asymmetric boundary conditions have an important effect on the temperature and flow field. In addition, the growth of the thickness of the frozen layer with time has been derived from a simple analytical solution of the interface energy equation.