Method of Analysis
A healed disc is considered to be melting into ice at the velocity V. The temperature of the escaping water drops from the disc temperature to the fusion temperature of the ice across the uniform distance δ.
In the following transformations, the radial velocity u, and the axial velocity v are non-dimensionalized with V. The axial distance z is related to the distance between the disc and ice δ, and the radial coordinate r is related to the disc radius, R. The variable p indicates the pressure distribution in the melt water.
A prime (') indicates a dimensional quantity. The subscripts w and i refer to "water" and "ice".
u = u’/V, v = v’/V,
z = z’/δ, r = r’/R,
p = p’/pwV2.
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The assumptions used to reduce the equations of motion are: (1) inertial Ibices are much less than viscous forces; (2) δ ≪ R; (3) steady state; (4) no body forces; (5) constant properties. The resultant equation for the r direction is:
where
pw is the water density and μ is the water viscosity at a "mixed mean" temperature defined in Equation (14).
To solve for the velocity and pressure distribution, the following boundary conditions must be satisfied:
Solving Equation (a) with the boundary conditions and using mass balance of the fluid gives the following expressions for the pressure and radial-velocity distributions:
The gap thickness δ can be found by integrating Equation (4) over the disc area:
where Pi indicates the effective average pressure acting on the disc.
An integral energy equation for the fluid layer is then derived. Conduction in the r direction is neglected. Equating the conduction and convection terms yields the energy equation
where T = T'/Tm and Tm is the fusion temperature; the Peclet number is c is the heat capacity of the water, and k is the conductivity of the water. The boundary conditions for temperature are:
where A is the heat of fusion.
The solution of Equations (7) and (8) is:
where
and a is a constant of integration.
If efficiency, η is defined as the quantity of heat that is conducted into the ice directly below the disc over the total heat leaving the disc, the following equation results:
Evaluation of η as (Pe) ⟶ o indicates a = o which makes T independent of r. This is in agreement with Shreve's work (1962), in which the isothermal surface assumption leads to a constant δ for a heated disc.
Comparison of Results
The temperature of the disc in Shreve's study was shown to be a function of the following dimension-less "performance number" for a disc:
where Q is the total input of heat, W is the weight on the "hotpoint" or disc and μ0 is the water viscosity at o°C.
In order to conveniently relate the performance number N to the Peclet number, a dimensionless number (Pe)* is defined as
where μ and (Pe) are evaluated at the "mixed mean" temperature [Inline Equation], between the disc and the ice.
The factor pi/pw is included in (Pe)* because Equation (9) appears in terms of (Pe)-pi/pw. The term (μo/μ)−014 is a farm of the "property ratio" scheme described by Reference KaysKays (1966) which is commonly used to correct constant-property analytic solutions for effects of variable viscosity. The exponent, — 0.14, which has been used successfully with pipe-flow solutions for laminar flow of moderate to high Prandtl number liquids (Reference KaysKays, 1966), was found, after trial and error, to correct this solution to near the values obtained by Shreve using fresh-water viscosity data.
Shreve's performance number N, and (Pe)* can now be related as
where E is efficiency as defined by Shreve: the "ratio of the cross-sectional area of the 'hotpoint' to the cross-sectional area of the hole made in the ice".
We have described efficiency as the ratio of the quantity of heat conducted into the ice directly below the disc to the total heat leaving the disc. Since the heat from the disc which does not get conducted to the ice directly below serves instead to enlarge the cross-sectional area of the hole created, it can be seen that the two definitions are mathematically equivalent.
The results of this study and that of Shreve are compared in Figure I. The term τ0 denned by Shreve is disc temperature multiplied by c/λ (heat capacity of water/heat of fusion). The discrepancy between the numerical solution using the more exact method of Shreve, and the constant-property method giving an analytical solution is seen to be very small. Also, the efficiencies η and E agree very well at low values of Nand (Pe)*, and differ by only a few percent at higher values ofN. The results indicate that this method is satisfactory for the analysis of a flat disc and should be considered for its possible application to other geometries.