Instability and freezing in a solidifying melt conduit (Q622341)

The authors have conducted experiments for the flow in a tube whose boundary is held below freezing. It shows that a solid material is formed on the boundary, leaving an inner tube of flowing liquid. As the flow rate is progressively decreased, the pressure drop across the tube first decreases and then increases before the tube freezes finaly shut. A theoretical model for low Reynolds number flow through a tube with solidification, with the shape of a steady state tube as a function of distance downstream, is obtained. A relation between pressure drop and the flux is also derived. The linear stability of steady states depends upon the upstream boundary condition. When constant flux is applied, all states are found to be stable. When a constant pressure drop is applied, those corresponding to a flux less than the flux at the minimum are unstable and for a coupled condition the critical flux for stability is inbetween. In the experiments, pressure drop and flux were coupled by the measuring device, so these qualitative results may explain the experimental rise in pressure drop as flux is slowly decreased to the freezing value.