International Journal of Dynamics of Fluids

ISSN 0973-1784 Vol.2, No.1 (2006), pp. -

© Research India Publications
http://www.ripublication.com/ijdf.htm

An Analysis of Freezing of Viscous Liquids in

Cylindrical Containers, Part A: Effects of Natural
Convection

K.K. Rathore1 and S. Srinivasa Murthy*2

Refrigeration and Air - Conditioning Laboratory

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai - 600 036 (INDIA)

Abstract

A Numerical analysis of freezing of viscous liquids including the presence

of a mushy region between the solid and liquid phases is presented. The
conservation equations of continuity, momentum, and energy are solved using
the enthalpy - porosity method. Iso - liquid fraction lines in the mushy region,
streamlines and isotherms are obtained. Two cases, namely "conduction -
only", and "conduction - natural convection" are studied. The solid and liquid
interface movements with time are traced. Results show that heat transfer
during the early periods of freezing is dominated by conduction in the solid
formed close to the wall. Natural convection exerts greater influence on the
morphology of the liquid front whereas the solid front is affected slightly.

Key words: Freezing, Natural Convection, Conduction, Mushy Regio.

Introduction
Transient "moving boundary" heat transfer problems are encountered in many
engineering applications such as freezing of foods, solidification of metals, thermal
energy storage, aerodynamic ablation, cryosurgery etc. In the freezing or
solidification of pure substances like water, the phase change takes place at a discrete
temperature, and the solid and liquid phases are separated by a sharp moving
interface. On the other hand, in the case of mixtures, alloys and impure materials,
1
Current Address: Sr. Engineer, Advanced Engineering, ASHOK LEYLAND LTD., Chennai-600035
E-mail: kishore.alc@ashokleyland.com
*2 Corresponding author: E-mail: ssmurthy@iitm.ac.in
2 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

solidification occurs over an extended temperature range, as a result of which, a two-

phase moving region called "mushy" region, separates the solid and liquid phases.
Unlike freezing of pure substances, viscous liquids like, jams, jellies, sugar syrups,
chocolate melts, ice cream mixtures, etc do not exhibit a distinct front separating solid
and liquid phases. Instead, solid is first formed as a permeable, fluid saturated
crystalline like matrix which co -exists with the liquid phase. The presence of this
mushy region makes a double moving boundary problem, because the freezing
process is now accompanied by two moving interfaces, i.e. the solidified front and the
liquid front. Also, there are three moving region, i.e. frozen region, mushy region and
liquid region. It is generally recognized that the dynamics of such phase change
process are to a large extent influenced by natural convection.
Many investigators have presented mathematical models for predicting the time-
temperature histories, freezing rates and freezing time of food products. Duda, et al
[1] presented a technique for the analysis of unsteady, two-dimensional diffusive heat
or mass transfer problem characterized by moving irregular phase change boundaries.
The technique includes an immobilization transformation and a numerical scheme for
the solution. Voller and Cross [2] gave a solution for the moving boundary problem
using the enthalpy method for both two-dimensional and one-dimensional freezing
using explicit and implicit finite difference methods. Gau and Viskanta [3] studied the
role of natural convection on solid – liquid phase front during melting and
solidification of Lipowitz metal alloy inside a rectangular cavity. Experiments were
performed for solidification as well as melting. Measured temperature distribution and
fluctuation gave a qualitative indication of natural convection flow regime inside the
cavity. They found that suppression of natural convection in the metal leads to slower
melting rate and higher freezing rate. Voller et.al [4] developed an enthalpy
formulation for convection-diffusion phase change problem. As an example they
implemented the method to two test problems i.e. solidification in a cavity under
conduction, and phase change under conduction and natural convection using the
control volume numerical discretization. Voller and Prakash [5] developed a fixed
grid numerical modeling methodology for convection – diffusion, mushy region-
phase change problem. The basic feature of this method lies in the representation of
latent heat of evolution, and of flow in the solid-liquid mushy zone. Linear
relationship was used between enthalpy change and temperature. Motion in the mushy
region was simulated using the Darcy – law. They also demonstrated an application of
this method through a test problem of freezing in a thermal cavity under natural
convection. Viskanta [6] made a review of the significance of heat transfer during
melting and solidification of metals and alloys. He stressed that the fundamental
macroscopic transport process in the solid and the melt mainly influence the solid-
liquid interface shape and motion, and not the external heat exchange. The important
role played by buoyancy driven fluid flow was also discussed. Bennon and Incropera
[7] presented a numerical solution to the binary solid-liquid phase change problem
through a continuum model. The solution of the multiconstituent, multiphase problem
was reduced to that of a coupled single-phase problem. Sample calculations were
performed for static solidification in Cartesian co-ordinates to illustrate the
convenience of the solution methodology and to emphasize the significance of bulk
Effects of Natural Convection 3

and mushy region fluid motion for macroscopic phase change behavior. Numerical
calculation was performed for an aqueous ammonium chloride solution in a
rectangular cavity. A comparative study was made between the diffusion-dominated
binary solidification and binary solidification with advection. Based on the results
they concluded that advection had a significant influence on phase change behavior in
binary systems. Even though growth of the solid layer was comparable for both the
cases, the morphology of the liquidus, temperature and liquid compositions differed
dramatically. This confirmed the inability of diffusion-dominated models to describe
binary phase change problems. Cao and Poulikakos [8] performed an experimental
study of solidification of binary mixtures (NH4Cl – H20) in a rectangular cavity
cooled from the top wall and observed the complex flow, heat and mass transfer
phenomena. These phenomena drastically affect the solidification process and,
therefore the growth rate and structure of the resulting solid. Samarskii et.al [9] made
a review of numerical techniques for the solution of heat and mass transfer problems
with solid/liquid phase change. Tan and Leong [10] studied the effect of wall
temperature and aspect ratio on the solid – liquid interface during solidification inside
a rectangular enclosure. Three different types of n – paraffins namely, n – octadecane,
n – heptadecane & n – hexadecane were used. They found that using an enclosure
with a higher aspect ratio produces a flatter phase front compared to that of lower
aspect ratio. A qualitative analysis revealed that the natural convection in the liquid of
lower aspect ratio had a stronger influence on the phase front. Also, they found that a
lower wall temperature resulted in higher solidification rate and the phase front had a
more prominent curve at the top of the test cell. Giangi et.al [11] presented numerical
and experimental studies on unsteady natural convection during freezing of water in a
differentially heated cube shaped cavity. Numerical methods with boundary fitted grid
as well as the enthalpy – porosity fixed grid were used. Both numerical models
showed good agreement with the experimental data for pure convection during initial
periods while the discrepancies between numerical predictions and the experiments
became significant at higher times.
The literature reveals that conduction heat transfer has been widely considered
during freezing/solidification studies, and the effect of natural convection has been
usually neglected. The presence of a partially frozen mushy region is generally
ignored. The variation of thermo – physical properties (thermal conductivity &
specific heat) across the mushy region due to the variation in liquid fraction is
important but often neglected. This paper presents a rigorous analysis of the freezing
process taking into account the above aspects. The thermal characteristics of freezing
in “conduction – convection” mode is compared with “conduction – only”. A liquid
food model, Tylose gel (23% methyl cellulose & 77% water) is taken as an example.

Formulation of Problem
The physical model is shown in Fig 1. Initially the viscous liquid in the cylindrical
container is at temperature Ti, which is above its freezing point. The container is
instantaneously exposed to a temperature lower than the freezing temperature. As
freezing proceeds, three distinct regions are formed; a solid region, a mushy region
4 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

consisting of solid crystals dispersed in the liquid, and a liquid region. Natural
convection currents are set both in the liquid region and mushy region. The frozen
region grows continuously till all the liquid is solidified. The mushy region grows
initially and later diminishes as the frozen region encroaches into it. The liquid region
diminishes continuously till it vanishes completely.

Figure 1: Schematic of model showing physical feature of the problem with applied
thermal boundary condition.

The following assumptions are made to facilitate the problem formulation and
solution:
• The fluid flow in the liquid region developed due to natural convection is
laminar since the viscosity of the liquid is high and the temperature gradients
are low.
• The liquid is Newtonian and incompressible.
• Thermal conductivity and specific heat are functions of temperature in the
mushy region, and are constant for solid and liquid regions. Across the mushy
region the values of thermo-physical properties at the solid and liquid
interfaces are equal to those of solid and liquid respectively. In the absence of
exact variation, and for simplicity, linear variations are assumed.
• 7KH GHQVLW\ YDULDWLRQ GXH WR WKH SKDVH FKDQJH LV QHJOLJLEOH LH !l = !s, as there
is negligible expansion due to freezing.
Effects of Natural Convection 5

• Flow in the mushy region follows the Darcy – law. Since, it has been found in
literature [4] that Darcy source technique for velocity correction has greater
physical significance and also realistic.
Darcy law states that flow in a porous medium is proportional to the
pressure gradient i.e.

( )
ua = − K µ grad ( P ) (1)
:KHUH WKH SHUPHDELOLW\ . LV D IXQFWLRQ RI SRURVLW\ µ0¶ ZKLFK LV HTXDO WR
the elemental liquid fraction. As the porosity decreases the permeability
and the superficial velocity (ua) also decrease down to a limiting value of
zero when the mush becomes completely solid
• The flow is axi-symmetric i.e. occurs only along the r and z directions.
• The Boussinesq approximation for natural convection flow is applicable
since the variation in density with respect to the reference density is small.
• The cylindrical container is fully filled with no vapor phase present.

The enthalpy – porosity technique [5] is used for formulation of the problem. In
this technique, the liquid interface is not tracked explicitly, instead the fraction of the
cell volume that is in the liquid form, is associated with each cell in the domain. The
liquid fraction is computed at each iteration based on an enthalpy balance.
The enthalpy of the material is computed as the sum of the sensible enthalpy h and
latent heat ¨+ LH
H = h + ¨+ 
Where,
T
h = href + ∫ C dT
Tref
P (3)

and,
href is the reference enthalpy
Tref is the reference temperature
C P is the specific heat at constant pressure
In order to establish a mushy phase change, the latent heat contribution is specified as
a function of temperature, ∆H = f (T ) . The nature of the latent heat evolution in the
mushy region is dependent on the local liquid fraction( ℑ ) – temperature relationship.
In the current work a simple linear form is chosen. The liquid fraction, ℑ is defined
as,

0 for T < TS

ℑ = 1 for T > TL (4)
 T −T
 S
for TS < T < TL
T −
 L ST
Above equation is referred to as the lever rule [12].
6 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

The latent heat content can now be written in terms of the latent heat content of the
material and varies between zero ( for solid) and L (for a liquid) i.e.
L for T ≥ TL

∆H =  ℑL for TS < T < TL (5)
0 for T < TS

Where, TL is the temperature at which freezing commences and TS is the temperature
at which full freezing is achieved.

The energy equation in terms of the sensible enthalpy h is written as follows:

∂ ( ρ h ) 1 ∂ (r ρ u r h ) ∂ ( ρ v z h )  1 ∂  ∂h  ∂ 2 h 
+ + =α  r ∂r  r ∂r  + ∂z 2  + sh (6)
∂t r ∂r ∂z    
In using a fixed grid approach in the enthalpy – porosity method for the analysis of
freezing, the main difficulty is in accounting for heat transfer in the vicinity of phase
change due to the evolution of latent heat. The basic approach for overcoming this
problem is to define an approximate energy equation source term, s h as:
∂ ( ρ∆ H ) 1 ∂ ∂
sh = + (r ρ u r ∆H ) + ( ρ vz ∆H ) (7)
∂t r ∂r ∂z
The Continuity equation is
1 ∂ ∂vz
(r u r ) + = 0 (8)
r ∂r ∂z
The Momentum equation in radial direction is
∂ur 1 ∂ ∂ 1 ∂P  1 ∂  ∂ur  ∂ 2ur 
+ ( ru r v z ) + (u r v z ) = − +ν  ∂  r ∂  + ∂ 2  + f radial + s r (9)
∂t r ∂r ∂z ρ ∂r r r  r  z 
and in axial direction is
∂vz 1 ∂ ∂ 1 ∂P  1 ∂  ∂vz  ∂ 2vz 
+ ( ru r v z ) + (u r v z ) = − +ν  r + 2 
+ f axial + s z (10)
∂t r ∂r ∂z ρ ∂z  r ∂r  ∂r  ∂z 
Where, f r a d i a l and f a x i a l are the body forces acting in the radial and axial
directions. For free convection inside a cylinder, f r a d i a l is zero while f a x i a l is the
gravitational force acting on the control volume.
According to the Boussinesq approximation:
( ρ − ρ0 ) g ≅ − ρ0 β (T − Tref ) g (11)
Where,  LV WKH YROXPHWULF WKHUPDO H[SDQVLRQ FRHIILFLHQW JLYHQ E\
1  ∂ρ 
β =−   (12)
ρ  ∂T  P
Effects of Natural Convection 7

The momentum equation in axial direction after incorporating the Bousssinesq

approximation is given by:
∂vz 1 ∂ ∂ 1 ∂P  1 ∂  ∂vz  ∂ vz 
2
+
∂t r ∂r
(rur vz ) + (ur vz ) = −
∂z ρ ∂z
+ν  r  ∂z 2  + g β (T − Tref ) + s z (13)
+
 r ∂r  ∂r  
The above momentum equation can further be written as,
∂vz 1 ∂ ∂ 1 ∂P  1 ∂  ∂vz  ∂ vz 
2  h − href 
+ ( rur vz ) + (ur vz ) = − +ν  r  + 2 
+ gβ 
  + sz (14)
∂t r ∂r ∂z ρ ∂z  r ∂r  ∂r  ∂z   Cp 
During the solution for the momentum field, the velocity at the computational cell
located in the solid phase should be suppressed while the velocities in the liquid phase
remain unaffected. In the enthalpy- porosity method, the above condition is accounted
for by suitably defining the source terms s r and s z , which modify the momentum
equations in the mushy region as:
s r = −ψ u r (15)

s z = −ψ v z (16)
The basic principle is to gradually reduce the velocities from a finite value in the
liquid to zero in the full solid over the computational cells that are changing phase.
This is achieved by assuming that such cells behave as porous media with porosity,
µ0¶ HTXDO WR WKH ORFDO OLTXLG IUDFWLRQ µ ℑ ’. The porosity is computed as:

∆H
ε= (17)
L
In the cells that are undergoing phase change, ‘ψ ’ is defined so that the momentum
equations are forced to mimic Carman – Kozeny equation [5], thus

 (1 − ℑ )2 
grad ( P ) =  −C  ua (18)
 ℑ3 

Where C is called ‘mushy zone constant’ and ‘ u a ’is the superficial velocity. In order
to achieve this, ‘ψ ’is defined as [5]
(1 − ℑ)
2

ψ = −C (19)
ℑ3 + b
Where, ‘b’ is a computational constant introduced to avoid division by zero. In
practice the effect of ψ is as follows:

In full liquid elements, ψ is zero and has no influence, but in the elements that are
changing phase, the value of ψ will dominate over the transient, convective, and
diffusive components of the momentum equation, thereby forcing them to follow the
Carman – Kozeny law. In totally solid regions, the final large value of ψ will swap out
8 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

all terms in the governing equations and force any velocity predictions effectively to
zero.
The choice of the constant ‘C’ and ‘b’ should ensure sufficient suppression of the
velocity in the solid region and should not influence the numerical results
significantly. In the present work, C =1 x 106 and b = 0.001 are found to be
appropriate.
Initial and Boundary conditions are written as follows:

Initially the fluid is at rest and is at uniform temperature, hence

T = Ti, ur = 0, vz = 0 at 0 ≤ r ≤ R , 0 ≤ z ≤ H (20)

At the cylindrical surface of the container, r = R,

T = Tw, ur = 0, vz = 0, for 0 ≤ z ≤ H (21)

At the bottom surface of the container, z = 0,

T = Tw, ur = 0, vz = 0, for 0 ≤ r ≤ R (22)
At the axis, r = 0,
∂T ∂u ∂v
= 0, r = 0, z = 0 , for 0 ≤ z ≤ H (23)
∂r ∂r ∂z
At the top surface of the container, z = H,
T = TW, ur = 0, vz = 0, for 0 ≤ r ≤ R (24)
The governing equations along with the boundary conditions represent a set of non
– linear coupled partial differential equations, which are solved iteratively using the
commercial CFD software, FLUENT.6. The first order implicit scheme is used for
time discretization. The PISO (Pressure implicit with Splitting of operators) algorithm
[17] is used to solve the momentum and continuity equations. The nodal enthalpy
updates procedure described by Voller and Parkash [5] is used to iteratively update
nodal enthalpy values.

Validation of the Model

One of the main objectives of the present work is to evaluate the influence of natural
convection during the freezing process. The test geometry for the problem which is a
rectangular cavity is shown in Fig. 2. Initially, the molten tin is kept at a temperature
of 233oC and the top and bottom walls of the container are insulated. Cooling is done
from the right wall, which is maintained at 229oC, while the left wall is maintained at
the initial temperature of 233oC. Figure 3 makes a comparison of the position of
interface during solidification of tin with the present, and the numerical and
experimental results of Wolff and Viskanta [13]. Results indicate that during the
initial periods, (0.077hr) the present method over predicts the solidified volume
compared to the experimental results, but is in good agreement with the numerical
method. The reason for above is the fact that due to thermal inertia of the
experimental setup, it is impossible to suddenly lower the temperature at one vertical
wall in order to initiate the solidification process. As solidification progresses, the
Effects of Natural Convection 9

difference between the experimental data and present method becomes smaller, and
after 0.529hr the experimentally obtained solidified volume is greater than the present
numerical prediction. The discrepancy at the later stage is due to the lowering of the
hot and cold wall temperature because of uncontrolled heat loss to the ambient, which
in the present simulation is assumed to be constant. Also the assumption that the
properties are same for both liquid and solid, introduces an additional factor for
discrepancy in the results. Overall, it can be concluded that the present numerical
procedure is capable of solving freezing or solidification problems.

Figure 2: Schematic of solidification of tin in a rectangular cavity.

6
Analytical
5
Experiment
y (cm)

4 Present method

0
0 2 4 6 8
x (cm)

Figure 3: Phase change front during solidification of tin.

10 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

Validation with experimental Results

Validation of the analytical model with experiments on Tylose – MH 1000 was also
done at our laboratory. An experimental set up to visually track the movements of
boundaries and convection currents would be very elaborate and expensive. Due to
the limitations of the test rig, only temperature profiles could be measured.
Precalibrated T–type thermocouples are placed at different locations on a
thermocouple rack to record the temperature distribution in the test specimen. The
time – temperature plot obtained from the experiments and simulation are compared
in Fig. 4. The three periods of the freezing process: pre-cooling, phase change and
tempering can be clearly identified in the Figure. The pre–cooling period accounted
for the sensible heat removal from the liquid, until the initial freezing temperature is
attained. The phase change period is characterized by a slow decrease in temperature
due to the removal of latent heat of fusion. The rate of temperature changes in this
period increases as freezing proceeds to tempering stage.

300
Experiment
Simulation
Temperature (K)

285

r=0
270

Temperature Inside Climate Chamber = -30oC

255 Heat Transfer Coefficient on the Container Surface,
Corresponding to Air Circulation
inside Climate Chamber = 12W/m2K r = R/2
Freezing Temperature = -0.6oC

240
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (Hours)
Figure 4: Comparison between experimental and simulation results.

Good agreement between the experimental and the simulation results is observed
during the pre – cooling and the phase change stage. It is speculated that the deviation
between the results is due to following reasons:
• Changes in the relative location of thermocouple junctions in the sample
during the freezing process due to the volumetric expansion which is
associated with the density changes that occur during the phase change.
• Assumption made for the thermophysical properties especially for thermal
conductivity and specific heat in the mushy region.
• Assumptions of constant viscosity made in the simulation, even though there
is the decrease in the viscosity as the temperature decreases. As a result the
effect of convection diminishes as the freezing proceeds.
Effects of Natural Convection 11

Overall, based on the three validations it can be concluded that both the physical
model and the methodology adopted for the numerical solution of the convection –
diffusion controlled mushy region phase change problem is capable of predicting the
results within permissible errors.

Results and Discussion

The computational domain of the test problem is discretized into quadrilateral cells
using Gambit. The simulation was tested for grid sizes with approximately 100x30
and 150x75 cells to check for grid independence. The grid density was kept high close
to the walls and low towards the axis. The grid dependence study showed that there is
negligible difference between the results for grid size 100x30 and 150x75, and further
simulations were carried out using the 100x30 cells.
Results are presented as isotherms, flow patterns and iso – liquid fraction lines in
mushy region. Here iso - liquid fraction is defined as the fraction of liquid volume in a
domain which is not solidified to the total volume of liquid in the same domain.
Comparative studies are made between two cases i.e. when only conduction is taken
into account, and when conduction and convection are both considered.
For the “conduction –only” case, during the early stages of freezing, both solid and
liquid fronts propagate rapidly and remain planar, as shown in Figs. 5a and 6a. The
temperature gradients are confined to the solid and mushy regions, with the bulk
liquid in the core remaining nearly isothermal. Lines of iso - liquid fraction in Fig. 5a
also show that the gradients are confined to the mushy region. Solidification behavior
for higher times shown in Figs. 5 and 6 are qualitatively similar to that for time
100sec, with the gradual decrease in the initial bulk fluid superheat. Presence of
mushy zone prohibits energy diffusion into the bulk fluid as it consumes the latent
heat of freezing.
12 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

0.7

0.3
0.5

(a) 100 Sec (c) 1400 Sec

Mushy
Region

1
0.7
0.6 1
Unfrozen 0.3
0.2 Region

0 0

Frozen
Region

(b) 1000 Sec (d) 2200 Sec

Figure 5: Iso – liquid fraction lines for the conduction - only case at Rayleigh No.
4.35196x108.
Effects of Natural Convection 13

293K

278K

262K

286K
243K
243K 270K

(a) 100 Sec (c) 1400 Sec

286K 272K

260K
273K

248K

256K

243K

(b) 1000 Sec (d) 2200 Sec

Figure 6: Isotherms for the conduction - only case at Rayleigh No. 4.35196x108.
14 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

Unfrozen
Region 0.690

0.345

Mushy 0
Region
1
0
0.7
Frozen
Region

(a) 100 Sec (c) 1400 Sec

0.2
0.791
0.289
0

0.4

(b) 1000 Sec (d) 2200 Sec

Figure 7: Iso – liquid fraction lines for the conduction – convection case at Rayleigh
No 4.35196x108.
Effects of Natural Convection 15

283K

268K

270K 259K

248K

271K
243K

(a) 100 Sec (c) 1400 Sec

255K

262K

269K

249K

261K
251K

(b) 1000 Sec (d) 2200 Sec

Figure 8: Isotherms for conduction – convection case at Rayleigh No. 4.35196x108

16 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

For the “conduction – convection” case, the progression of the solid – liquid
interface with time is seen in Figs. 7 and 8. Initially, the mushy zone interface with
solid and liquid is only slightly curved, indicating that heat transfer is predominantly
by conduction. However, as time progresses, buoyancy driven natural convection in
the bulk core liquid influences the local heat transfer rate at the mushy region
interface. The curved interface provides conclusive evidence of this effect as seen in
Fig. 7b. The warmer liquid in the core rises along the axis of the cylinder to the top of
the liquid layer; then turns 90o and impinges at the mushy zone interface as evident in
Fig. 9. The flow is deflected and descends along the interface, while its temperature
decreases. Due to the higher temperature of the liquid near the top of the container,
the local solidification rate is the slowest in this region. By the time the liquid has
reached the lower part of the liquid filled container, it has been cooled down to close
to its freezing temperature. Figure 7 also shows the position and shape of the mushy
region. The solidified front shows small deformation due to convection effects. The
liquid front however shows a pronounced thickness at the lower wall. This thickness
is the direct effect of convection in the mushy region. The flow direction away from
the solid front formed close to the vertical wall at the bottom of the container
increases the heat loss and hence, results in pronounced thickness. The flow in the
mushy region close to the liquid front is maximum and it decreases as it moves
towards the solid front, because of decrease in the liquid fraction value and becomes
zero at the solid front. At the same time the return flow from the core of the cylinder
retards the growth of the mushy region at the top of the container resulting in its
thinning.
The thickness of mushy region at the top is noticeable at very early time steps.
Furthermore, there appears to be some remelting of the mushy region near the top as
time progresses. Such remelting behavior can be explained in terms of the transient
modification of the velocity field. At initial times the velocity near the top wall is
small due to the no slip conditions, hence significant solidification occurs in this area.
At later times, the greater momentum of the fluid creates larger velocities near the top
of the container and remelting occurs. In contrast to the conduction - only case shown
in Fig. 5, thermally induced recirculation within the bulk liquid and the accompanying
incidence of warmer bulk fluids on the liquid front leads to a significant thinning of
the mushy region, particularly near top of the container. The solid front is, however,
influenced little by advective motion and remains slightly inclined. Due to the decay
in the initial bulk fluid superheat, thermally induced bulk fluid motion weakens
considerably, particularly in the lower half of the container, as indicated by the
significant reduction in stream function values shown in Fig. 9. It also shows the
formation of secondary recirculating cells within the bulk fluid near the top of the
container. In addition to the continued penetration of chilled mushy region fluids into
the bulk liquid along the axis at the top, the absence of strong thermally induced down
flows outside the liquid front enable the mushy region fluids to penetrate the liquid
front near the container centre. Thermally induced recirculation cells are confined to a
small zone near the top, as seen in Fig. 9c. In the absence of strong bulk fluid motion,
the flows in mushy region fluids are now easily able to penetrate the liquid front in the
core of the container as shown in Figs. 7c and 7d. Results also reveal that due to the
Effects of Natural Convection 17

decay in bulk liquid circulation coupled with the decay in the initial bulk liquid
superheat, growth of liquid front is facilitated at the bottom of the container. Hence,
the liquid front differs dramatically from the planar front in the conduction – only
dominated situation shown in Fig. 5.
Figure 8 shows that in the beginning, temperature profiles are typical of natural
convection in a cylindrical enclosure. Due to the counterclockwise circulation in the
bulk liquid, the formation of bursts of cells called the Benard’s cells [16] are observed
at the top of the container during initial stage. The formation of such cells is also the
reason for the thinning of the mushy region at the top as it causes the remelting of the
frozen layer. The convective flow causes the steepest temperature gradients at the
mushy region interface. Along the interface, the temperature gradients are higher in
the upper region of the container where the warm liquid impinges on the solid, and
decrease towards the bottom. Due to the increasing thermal resistance of the solid
layer and the reduced heat conduction from the isothermal cool wall to the mushy
region, heat transfer from the core liquid pool to the mushy region by convection
plays an important role in the local energy balance. The curved liquid front provides
conclusive evidence of these phenomena as seen in Fig. 8b. Maximum temperature
gradients are confined in solid and mushy regions. The reason for this is that nearly all
the energy entering the container through the cooled wall is absorbed by the mushy
region which acts as a cushion between the solid and liquid regions, allowing only a
small fraction of energy to penetrate the liquid.
A Comparison of Figs. 7 and 5 illustrates the significant influence of convection on
mushy region phase change. While the growth of the solid layer is comparable to that
predicted in the conduction - only case, the morphology of the liquid front differs
dramatically. Also, the suppression of solidification at the top of the container induces
non – uniform solid layer growth in the horizontal and vertical directions. Whereas, in
the conduction – only case, the solid layer grows symmetrically. Isotherms and iso –
liquid fraction contours shown in Figs.7 and 8 further confirm the inability of
conduction - only models to describe the mushy region phase change problems.
Figure 9 shows the evolution of flow pattern in the liquid and mushy region with
time. In Fig. 9a, one may see that an anticlockwise large vortex with recirculation has
formed. Also at the top of the container, counter rotating convection cells are
observed during the initial periods. As solidification progresses, these cells merge into
a large recirculation cell which comprises several small convection cells. Also, the
intensity of natural convection flow decreases due to narrow liquid domain and the
small difference between liquid temperatures in the core liquid. The anticlockwise
vortex becomes weaker and a smaller clockwise vortex (secondary recirculation cell)
appears in the upper right region. At these locations the anticlockwise vortex
separates from the axis and makes a 90o turn. Due to the secondary recirculation cells,
the impingement of the main flow (anticlockwise vortex) does not occur in the
immediate vicinity of the corners, but is shifted horizontally and vertically towards
upper liquid front. The minimum local solidification rate is not at the top of the
container but in the region where the main flow impinges on the mushy zone
interface. However, as solidification progresses, the main flow (anticlockwise vortex)
dominates and occupies most of the region along the mushy zone interface until the
18 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

solidification is complete. The clock wise vortex (secondary recirculation cell), just
appears in small size as a stagnant zone away from the mushy zone interface and
becomes negligible near the completion of solidification. Figure 10 shows the typical
vector representation of the streamlines.

0
0 0

1
1
1

0.5

0.2 0.

Figure 9: Non –dimensional stream function contours at Rayleigh No. 4.35196x108

The freezing curve at mid - height (z = H/2) is shown in Fig. 11. As expected, the
temperature falls sharply close to the container wall whereas at the centre, maximum
time is needed for the freezing front to reach. The temperature variation at the
intermediate point is interesting. As shown in the Fig. 12 that by the time when a
region close to the wall solidified which corresponds to point a’, the mushy region
has been reached to the mid – height (r = 0), which corresponds to point a’’. As the
mushy region passes through it, the liquid fraction and the thermo – physical
properties keep changing. Hence the temperature profile does not show a flat region.
Figure 12 which shows the variation of liquid fraction also indicates the freezing rate.
It may be recalled here that zero value of liquid fraction refers to complete
solidification. Figures 13 and 14 show that close to the top (0.08m) and bottom
(0.03m) of the container the temperature and the liquid fraction initially decrease
sharply and also show fluctuations. This is caused by the warm parcels of liquid that
impinge on the frozen layer and cause remelting. After a short transient period of
oscillations, the temperature and liquid fraction at both the locations stabilize and
decrease steadily.
Effects of Natural Convection 19

Figure 10: Vector lines of streamlines at 400 Sec.

303
At r = 0
294 At r = 0.02025m

r = 0.035m
Temperature(K)

285
Aspect Ratio 2.74

276
TL
267

258
a TS b cS
249

a’ b c’
240 c
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Time(Sec)

Figure 11: Time temperature history at mid - height (z = H/2) at Rayleigh No. 4.35196x108
20 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

1.1
At r = 0
1
At r = 0.035m
0.9 a''
AT r = 0.02025m
0.8
Liquid Fraction

Aspect Ratio 2.74

0.7
0.6 b''
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
a' b' c'
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Time(Sec)

Figure 12: Liquid fraction variation at mid – height (z = H/2) at Rayleigh No. 4.35196x108

3 00
0 .0 3 m
0 .0 5 5m
2 90
0 .0 8 m

A sp ect R atio 2 .74

2 80
T em p era tu re(K )

2 70

2 60

2 50

2 40
0 5 00 1 00 0 1 50 0 2 00 0 2 50 0 3 00 0 3 50 0 4 00 0
T im e(S ec)

Figure 13: Time temperature history for different values of z at r = 0.02025m.

Effects of Natural Convection 21

1.1
0.03m
1
0.055m
0.9 0.08m
Aspect Ratio 2.74
0.8
Liquid Fraction

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Time (Sec)
Figure 14: Liquid fraction variation for different value of Z at r = 0.02025m.
1.1
1 Conduction Plus
Convection
0.9
Conduction Only
0.8 Aspect Ratio 2.74
Liquid Fraction

r = 0.02025m
0.7
0.6
0.5 r=0
0.4 r = 0.02025m
0.3 r=0

0.2
0.1
0
D E D¶ E¶
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Time(Sec)
Figure 15: Comparison of liquid fraction variation for “conduction – only” case and
“conduction – convection” case.

Figures 15 and 16 make a comparison of the variation of liquid fraction and

temperature profile for the two cases, namely conduction – only and conduction –
convection. The points corresponding to the alphabets a, a’ b, b’ c, c’ indicates the
freezing time. Results show that there is large difference between the freezing rates
for the two cases. The difference is more prominent at the core than near the surface
due to the prolonged effects of natural convection at the axis.
22 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

303
"Conduction - convection"
294
"Conduction - 0nly"

285
r = 0.02025m
Tem peratu re(K)

276
r = 0
TL
267
r = 0
258
TS r = 0.02025m

249
r = 0.035m r = 0.035m

240 a a’ b b’ c c’
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Tim e(S ec)

Figure 16: Comparison of time – temperature history for “conduction – only” case
and “conduction – convection” case.

Tylose MH 1000, 77% moisture methyl cellulose gel, which is widely used as a food model
in studying the freezing process, is taken as an example [14, 15]. The thermo - physical
properties of Tylose MH -1000 have been recorded in the literature [14], as listed in Table 1.
Also, the phase change in Tylose MH 1000 occurs over a range of temperature.

Table 1: Thermophysical properties of Tylose MH - 1000 [14].

Property Value Unit

Thermal conductivity of unfrozen region, kuf
0.55 W/m K
TL” 7 ” 7i
Thermal conductivity of frozen region, kf
1.65 W/m K
TW ” 7 ” 7S
Thermal conductivity in mushy region
21.358 - 0.076388 T W/m K
TL ” 7 ” 7S
Specific heat of unfrozen region, Cuf
3687.8727 J/kg K
TL” 7 ” 7i
Specific heat of frozen region, Cf
1888.6679 J/kg K
TW ” 7 ” 7S
Specific heat in mushy region
-30347.08276+124.94477 T J/kg K
TL ” 7 ” 7S
'HQVLW\ !l !s 1006 kg/m3
9LVFRVLW\  0.0357 kg/s m
CoHIILFLHQW RI WKHUPDO H[SDQVLRQ  0.003413 K-1
Effects of Natural Convection 23

Conclusions
The mathematical model based on the enthalpy – porosity technique gives a clear
insight into the behavior of the three moving zones i.e. solid, mushy and liquid
regions during freezing. Heat transfer during the early periods of freezing is
dominated by conduction while at later times, the effects of natural convection come
to reckoning. Comparison between conduction- only case and the conduction -
convection case of solidification illustrates the significant influence of convection on
mushy region phase change. Difference in the freezing time is more at the core than
near the surface. While the growth of solid layer is comparable to that predicted in the
conduction – only case, the morphology of the liquid front differs dramatically. Effect
of natural convection is more on the morphology of liquid front whereas solid front is
affected slightly.

Nomenclature
b Constant used in equation (19)
C Mushy – zone constant
Cp Specific heat, (J/kgK)
f Body force in the momentum equation
g Acceleration due to gravity, (m/sec2)
h Sensible enthalpy, (J/kg)
∆H Latent heat of solidification, (J/kg)
H Total enthalpy (sensible plus latent), (J/kg), Height, (m)
k Thermal conductivity, (W/mK)
K Permeability, (m2)
L Latent heat of fusion, (J/kg)
P Pressure, (Pa)
g β (Ti − Tw ) H 3
Ra Rayleigh number,
υα
R Radius of container, (m)
Sh Energy equation source terms
S r, S z Momentum equation source term
T Temperature, (K)
u Radial velocity, (m/sec),
ua Superficial velocity, (m/sec)
v Axial velocity, (m/sec)
r Radial co-ordinate, (m)
z Axial co –ordinate, (m)
X Cartesian x – coordinate, (m)
Y Cartesian y – coordinate, (m)

Greek Symbols

ρ Density, (kg/m3)
µ Dynamic viscosity, (N/ms)
24 K.K. Rathore and S. Srinivasa Murthy

υ Kinematics viscosity, (m2/sec)

α Thermal diffusivity, (m2/sec)
ε Porosity
β Coefficient of thermal expansion. (K-1)
ℑ Local liquid fraction
ψ Parameter used in the equation (15,16 and 19)

Subscripts

c Cold wall
f Frozen region
uf Unfrozen region
H Hot wall
i, o Initial
L Liquidus temperature
l Liquid
m Melting temperature
r Radial direction
s Solid
S Solidus Temperature
z Axial direction
w Wall

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Effects of Natural Convection 25

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