Weak convection, liquid inclusions and the formation of chimneys in mushy layers (Q4933834)

This paper studies the problem of steady convection in a two-dimensional mushy layer during solidification of a binary mixture at a constant speed. The mushy layer is modelled as a reactive porous medium whose permeability is a function of the local solid fraction. The flow in the liquid region above the mushy layer is modelled using Stokes equations, that is the Prandtl number is taken to be infinite. In fact, the paper extends the weakly nonlinear studies in that it relaxes assumptions, like a fixed, flat, impermeable mush-liquid boundary, that were used earlier to facilitate analytical solution. The development of steady-state convection can be followed from onset to the first appearance of negative solid fraction within the mushy layer. This corresponds to the conception of chimneys as one moves along the continuum from steady state in the direction of increasing flow amplitude. The bifurcation is subcritical, so that these solutions are unstable, requiring a continuation algorithm to achieve the convergence of the numerical method used. The authors determine numerically the detailed structure of temperature, solute, flow and solid fraction fields within the mushy layer. A key finding is that, as the amplitude of steady convection increases, the fledgling chimneys emerge from the interior of mushy layer, rather than eating their way down from the top of the layer. The paper is prepared in a very careful way, and offers extensive physical arguments in support of the proposed modelling.