Chapter 21.

Melting

Modeling Solidication and

This chapter describes how you can model solidication and melting in FLUENT. Information is organized into the following sections: Section 21.1: Overview and Limitations of the Solidication/Melting Model Section 21.2: Theory for the Solidication/Melting Model Section 21.3: Using the Solidication/Melting Model

21.1
21.1.1

Overview and Limitations of the Solidication/Melting Model

Overview

FLUENT can be used to solve uid ow problems involving solidication and/or melting taking place at one temperature (e.g., in pure metals) or over a range of temperatures (e.g., in binary alloys). Instead of tracking the liquid-solid front explicitly, FLUENT uses an enthalpy-porosity formulation. The liquid-solid mushy zone is treated as a porous zone with porosity equal to the liquid fraction, and appropriate momentum sink terms are added to the momentum equations to account for the pressure drop caused by the presence of solid material. Sinks are also added to the turbulence equations to account for reduced porosity in the solid regions. FLUENT provides the following capabilities for modeling solidication and melting: Calculation of liquid-solid solidication/melting in pure metals as well as in binary alloys 21-1

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Modeling Solidication and Melting

Modeling of continuous casting processes (i.e., pulling of solid material out of the domain) Modeling of the thermal contact resistance between solidied material and walls (e.g., due to the presence of an air gap) Postprocessing of quantities related to solidication/melting (i.e., liquid fraction and pull velocities) These modeling capabilities allow FLUENT to simulate a wide range of solidication/melting problems, including melting, freezing, crystal growth, and continuous casting. The physical equations used for these calculations are described in Section 21.2, and instructions for setting up and solving a solidication/melting problem are provided in Section 21.3. 21.1.2 Limitations

As mentioned in Section 21.1.1, the formulation in FLUENT can be used to model the solidication/melting of pure materials, as well as alloys. The liquid fraction versus temperature relationship used in FLUENT is the lever rulei.e., a linear relationship (Equation 21.2-3). Other relationships are possible [232], but are not currently available in FLUENT. The following limitations apply to the solidication/melting model in FLUENT: The solidication/melting model can be used only with the segregated solver; it is not available with the coupled solvers. The solidication/melting model cannot be used for compressible ows. You cannot model species transport or any type of reacting ow in conjunction with the solidication/melting model. Of the general multiphase models (VOF, mixture, and Eulerian), only the VOF model can be used with the solidication/melting model. You cannot specify material properties separately for the solid and liquid materials.

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21.2 Theory for the Solidication/Melting Model

21.2

Theory for the Solidication/Melting Model

An enthalpy-porosity technique [247, 248, 249] is used in FLUENT for modeling the solidication/melting process. In this technique, the melt interface is not tracked explicitly. Instead, a quantity called the liquid fraction, which indicates the fraction of the cell volume that is in liquid form, is associated with each cell in the domain. The liquid fraction is computed at each iteration, based on an enthalpy balance. The mushy zone is a region in which the liquid fraction lies between 0 and 1. The mushy zone is modeled as a pseudo porous medium in which the porosity decreases from 1 to 0 as the material solidies. When the material has fully solidied in a cell, the porosity becomes zero and hence the velocities also drop to zero. In this section, an overview of the solidication/melting theory is given. Please refer to [249] for details on the enthalpy-porosity method. 21.2.1 Energy Equation

The enthalpy of the material is computed as the sum of the sensible enthalpy, h, and the latent heat, H : H = h + H where
T

(21.2-1)

h = href + and href Tref cp = = =

Tref

cp dT

(21.2-2)

reference enthalpy reference temperature specic heat at constant pressure

The liquid fraction, , can be dened as

= 0 if T < Tsolidus

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Modeling Solidication and Melting

= 1 if T > Tliquidus T Tsolidus = if Tsolidus < T < Tliquidus Tliquidus Tsolidus

(21.2-3)

Equation 21.2-3 is referred to as the lever rule. Other relationships between the liquid fraction and temperature (and species concentrations) are possible, but are not considered here. The latent heat content can now be written in terms of the latent heat of the material, L: H = L (21.2-4)

The latent heat content can vary between zero (for a solid) and L (for a liquid). For solidication/melting problems, the energy equation is written as (H ) + (vH ) = (kT ) + S t where H v S = = = = enthalpy (see Equation 21.2-1) density uid velocity source term (21.2-5)

The solution for temperature is essentially an iteration between the energy equation (Equation 21.2-5) and the liquid fraction equation (Equation 21.2-3). Directly using equation 21.2-3 to update the liquid fraction usually results in poor convergence of the energy equation. In FLUENT, the method suggested by Voller and Swaminathan [250] is used to update the liquid fraction. For pure metals, where Tsolidus and Tliquidus are equal, a method based on specic heat, given by [249], is used instead. 21.2.2 Momentum Equations

The enthalpy-porosity technique treats the mushy region (partially solidied region) as a porous medium. The porosity in each cell is set equal

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21.2 Theory for the Solidication/Melting Model

to the liquid fraction in that cell. In fully solidied regions, the porosity is equal to zero, which extinguishes the velocities in these regions. The momentum sink due to the reduced porosity in the mushy zone takes the following form: (1 )2 Amush (v vp ) ( 3 + )

S=

(21.2-6)

where is the liquid volume fraction, is a small number (0.001) to prevent division by zero, Amush is the mushy zone constant, and vp is the solid velocity due to the pulling of solidied material out of the domain (also referred to as the pull velocity). The mushy zone constant measures the amplitude of the damping; the higher this value, the steeper the transition of the velocity of the material to zero as it solidies. Very large values may cause the solution to oscillate. The pull velocity is included to account for the movement of the solidied material as it is continuously withdrawn from the domain in continuous casting processes. The presence of this term in Equation 21.2-6 allows newly solidied material to move at the pull velocity. If solidied material is not being pulled from the domain, vp = 0. More details about the pull velocity are provided in Section 21.2.4. 21.2.3 Turbulence Equations

Sinks are added to all of the turbulence equations in the mushy and solidied zones to account for the presence of solid matter. The sink term is very similar to the momentum sink term (Equation 21.2-6): (1 )2 Amush ( 3 + )

S=

(21.2-7)

where represents the turbulence quantity being solved (k, , , etc.), and the mushy zone constant, Amush , is the same as the one used in Equation 21.2-6.

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Modeling Solidication and Melting

21.2.4

Pull Velocity for Continuous Casting

In continuous casting processes, the solidied matter is usually continuously pulled out from the computational domain, as shown in Figure 21.2.1. Consequently, the solid material will have a nite velocity that needs to be accounted for in the enthalpy-porosity technique.

mushy zone

solidified shell

vp

liquid pool

wall

Figure 21.2.1: Pulling a Solid in Continuous Casting

As mentioned in Section 21.2.2, the enthalpy-porosity approach treats the solid-liquid mushy zone as a porous medium with porosity equal to the liquid fraction. A suitable sink term is added in the momentum equation to account for the pressure drop due to the porous structure of the mushy zone. For continuous casting applications, the relative velocity between the molten liquid and the solid is used in the momentum sink term (Equation 21.2-6) rather than the absolute velocity of the liquid. The exact computation of the pull velocity for the solid material is dependent on the Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio of the solid and the forces acting on it. FLUENT uses a Laplacian equation to approximate the pull velocities in the solid region based on the velocities at the boundaries of the solidied region:

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21.2 Theory for the Solidication/Melting Model

2 vp = 0

(21.2-8)

FLUENT uses the following boundary conditions when computing the pull velocities: At a velocity inlet, a stationary wall, or a moving wall, the specied velocity is used. At all other boundaries (including the liquid-solid interface between the liquid and solidied material), a zero-gradient velocity is used. The pull velocities are computed only in the solid region. Note that FLUENT can also use a specied constant value or custom eld function for the pull velocity, instead of computing it. See Section 21.3.2 for details. 21.2.5 Contact Resistance at Walls

FLUENTs solidication/melting model can account for the presence of an air gap between the walls and the solidied material, using an additional heat transfer resistance between walls and cells with liquid fraction less than 1. This contact resistance is accounted for by modifying the conductivity of the uid near the wall. Thus, the wall heat ux, as shown in Figure 21.2.2, is written as q= (T Tw ) (l/k + Rc (1 )) (21.2-9)

where T , Tw , and l are dened in Figure 21.2.2, k is the thermal conductivity of the uid, is the liquid volume fraction, and Rc is the contact resistance, which has the same units as the inverse of the heat transfer coecient.

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Modeling Solidication and Melting

wall near-wall cell Tw

G

Tw
G G

T
G

Rc

l/k

Figure 21.2.2: Circuit for Contact Resistance

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21.3 Using the Solidication/Melting Model

21.3
21.3.1

Using the Solidication/Melting Model

Setup Procedure

The procedure for setting up a solidication/melting problem is described below. (Note that this procedure includes only those steps necessary for the solidication/melting model itself; you will need to set up other models, boundary conditions, etc. as usual.) 1. To activate the solidication/melting model, turn on the Solidication/Melting option in the Solidication and Melting panel (Figure 21.3.1). Dene Models Solidication & Melting...

Figure 21.3.1: The Solidication and Melting Panel FLUENT will automatically enable the energy equation, so you do not have to visit the Energy panel before turning on the solidication/melting model. 2. Under Parameters, specify the value of the Mushy Zone Constant (Amush in Equation 21.2-6). Values between 104 and 107 are recommended for most computations. The higher the value of the Mushy Zone Constant, the steeper the damping curve becomes, and the faster the velocity drops to 21-9

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Modeling Solidication and Melting

zero as the material solidies. Very large values may cause the solution to oscillate as control volumes alternately solidify and melt with minor perturbations in liquid volume fraction. 3. If you want to include the pull velocity in your simulation (as described in Sections 21.2.2 and 21.2.4), turn on the Include Pull Velocities option under Parameters. 4. If you are including pull velocities and you want FLUENT to compute them (using Equation 21.2-8) based on the specied velocity boundary conditions, as described in Section 21.2.4, turn on the Compute Pull Velocities option and specify the number of Flow Iterations Per Pull Velocity Iteration.

It is not necessary to have FLUENT compute the pull velocities. See Section 21.3.2 for information about other approaches. The default value of 1 for the Flow Iterations Per Pull Velocity Iteration indicates that the pull velocity equations will be solved after each iteration of the solver. If you increase this value, the pull velocity equations will be solved less frequently. You may want to increase the number of Flow Iterations Per Pull Velocity Iteration if the liquid fraction equation is almost converged (i.e., the position of the liquid-solid interface is not changing very much). This will speed up the calculation, although the residuals may jump when the pull velocities are updated. 5. In the Materials panel, specify the Melting Heat (L in Equation 21.2-3), Solidus Temperature (Tsolidus in Equation 21.2-3), and Liquidus Temperature (Tliquidus in Equation 21.2-3) for the material being used in your model. Dene Materials... 6. Set the boundary conditions. Dene Boundary Conditions... In addition to the usual boundary conditions, consider the following: If you want to account for the presence of an air gap between a wall and an adjacent solidied region (as described

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21.3 Using the Solidication/Melting Model

in Section 21.2.5), specify a non-zero value, a prole, or a userdened function for Contact Resistance (Rc in Equation 21.2-9) under Thermal Conditions in the Wall panel. If you want to specify the gradient of the surface tension with respect to the temperature at a wall boundary, you can use the Marangoni Stress option for the wall Shear Condition. See Section 6.13.1 for details. If you want FLUENT to compute the pull velocities during the calculation, note how your specied velocity conditions are used in this calculation (see Section 21.2.4). Section 21.3.2 contains additional information about modeling continuous casting. See Sections 21.3.3 and 21.3.4 for information about solving a solidication/melting model and postprocessing the results. 21.3.2 Procedures for Modeling Continuous Casting

As described in Sections 21.2.2 and 21.2.4, you can include the pull velocities in your solidication/melting calculation to model continuous casting. There are three approaches to modeling continuous casting in FLUENT: Specify constant or variable pull velocities. To use this approach (the default), do not turn on the Compute Pull Velocities option. If you use this approach, you will need to patch constant values or custom eld functions for the pull velocities, after you initialize the solution. Solve Initialize Patch... See Section 22.13.2 for details about patching values. Note that it is acceptable to patch values for the pull velocities in the entire domain, because the patched values will be used only if the liquid fraction, , is less than 1.

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Have FLUENT compute the pull velocities (using Equation 21.2-8) during the calculation, based on the specied velocity boundary conditions. To use this approach, turn on the Compute Pull Velocities option. This method is computationally expensive, and is recommended only if the pull velocities are strongly dependent on the location of the liquid-solid interface. If you have FLUENT compute the pull velocities, then there are no additional inputs or setup procedures beyond those presented in Section 21.3.1. Have FLUENT compute the pull velocities just once, and then use those values for the remainder of the calculation. To use this approach, perform one iteration with FLUENT computing the pull velocities, and then turn o the Compute Pull Velocities option and continue the calculation. For the remainder of the calculation, FLUENT will use the values computed for the pull velocities at the rst iteration. 21.3.3 Solution Procedure

Before solving the coupled uid ow and heat transfer problem, you may want to patch an initial temperature or solve the steady conduction problem as an initial condition. The coupled problem can then be solved as either steady or unsteady. Because of the non-linear nature of these problems, however, in most cases an unsteady solution approach is preferred. You can specify the under-relaxation factor applied to the liquid fraction equation in the Solution Controls panel. Solve Controls Solution... Specify the desired value in the Liquid Fraction Update eld under UnderRelaxation Factors. This sets the value of in the following equation for updating the liquid fraction from one iteration (n) to the next (n + 1): n+1 = n + 21-12 (21.3-1)

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21.3 Using the Solidication/Melting Model

where is the predicted change in liquid fraction. In many cases, there is no need to change the default value of . If, however, there are convergence diculties, reducing the value may improve the solution convergence. Convergence diculties can be expected in steady-state calculations, continuous casting simulations, and simulations where a large value of the mushy zone constant is used. 21.3.4 Postprocessing

For solidication/melting calculations, you can generate graphical plots or alphanumeric reports of the following items, which are all available in the Solidication/Melting... category of the variable selection drop-down list that appears in postprocessing panels: Liquid Fraction Contact Resistivity X, Y, Z or Axial, Radial, Swirl Pull Velocity The rst two items are available for all solidication/melting simulations, and the others will appear only if you are including pull velocities (either computed or specied) in the simulation. See Chapter 27 for a complete list of eld functions and their denitions. Chapters 25 and 26 explain how to generate graphics displays and reports of data. Figure 21.3.2 shows lled contours of liquid fraction for a continuous crystal growth simulation.

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Modeling Solidication and Melting

1.00e+00 9.00e-01 8.00e-01 7.00e-01 6.00e-01 5.00e-01 4.00e-01 3.00e-01 2.00e-01 1.00e-01 0.00e+00

Contours of Liquid Fraction

Figure 21.3.2: Liquid Fraction Contours for Continuous Crystal Growth

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