On the mechanism responsible for unconventional thermal behaviour during freezing

Abstract

In this study, identical experiments of bottom-cooled solidification fluidic mixtures that exhibit faceted and dendritic microstructures were performed. The strength of compositional convection was correlated with the solidifying microstructure morphology, with the help of separate Rayleigh numbers in the mushy and bulk-fluid zones. While the dendritic solidification experienced a monotonic decrease in the bulk fluid temperature, solidification of the faceted case revealed an unconventional, anomalous temperature rise in the bulk liquid, at the initiation of the eutectic phase. Based on the bulk-liquid temperature profile, three distinct regimes of heat transfer were observed in the liquid over the course of solidification, namely - convection-dominated, transition, and conduction-dominated. The observations were analyzed and verified with the help of different initial compositions, as well as other mixtures that form faceted morphology upon freezing. The observed temperature rise was further ascertained by performing an energy balance in an indicative control volume ahead of the solid-liquid interface. The plausible mechanism behind the gain in temperature of the liquid during freezing was further generalized with the help of a simplified one-dimensional numerical model, and was extended to metals which are low Prandtl number mixtures. The study sheds new insights into the role of microstrostructural morphology in governing the transport phenomena in the bulk liquid.