Convective instability of directional crystallization in a forced flow: the role of brine channels in a mushy layer on nonlinear dynamics of binary systems (Q631152)

The authors discussed natural phenomena such as formation of ice, solidification of lava streams, crystal growth that are related to the liquid crystallization process in the introductory section. They emphasize the significant impact that the formation of the brine channels has on the structure of the mushy layer in sea ice-ocean interface. They developed a morphological instability analysis of the directional crystallization with brine channels in a mushy layer and gave a new instability criterion taking into account perturbations in the diffusion and solid fraction distributions. The analysis is done for the case of nonturbulent and turbulent boundary conditions. The instability criteria determine different regimes of the crystallization process with a mushy layer in the presence or absence of brine channels leading to the formation of a corrugated sea-ocean interface. The instability domain is shown to depend highly on the physical and operating parameters of the system.