Front tracking for the supercooled Stefan problem (Q1323502)

A solidification process can be described realistically as a two-phase Stefan problem but with a Gibbs-Thomson condition on the free boundary between the liquid and the solid phases, i.e. the phase-change temperature depends on the mean curvature of the free boundary. Such problem is solved numerically in a three-dimensional cube on the assumption that the free boundary is a graph of a function of the first two coordinates. Then a method of lines is employed, which means here the semidiscretization with respect to these two coordinates. The resulting system of ordinary differential equations in one dimension is then solved iteratively. Numerical examples presented in the paper use the initial free boundary as a flat surface perturbed slightly by sinusoidal oscillations. The movement within time of the whole free boundary and the development of these oscillations can be observed.