[nando83]

Hi foamers,
I am experiencing a problem in using solidificationMeltingSource.
I am trying to simulate the solidification of a liquid steel slice (2D simulation) setting a melting temperature of 1783.15 K, as you can see in fvOptions file, and initializing a temperature of 1824 K for the whole domain (see 0/T file).
In the file attached you can see the temperature trends for some probes: it seems that the initial temperature is just above the melting temperature instead the one I indicated (1824 K --> 1550 °C).
How is it possible?
What is wrong with my case?

Please find attached also the case:
- Extract the files
- Run BlockMest
- Move the polyMesh folder from ./constant/ to ./constant/billet/
- Run chtMultiRegionFoam
- Open with paraview

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Ferdinando

[Alczem]

Hey!


My guess is that the temperature immediately drops down to the melting temperature (1510°C) even though you initialized it at 1550°C.


It probably happens because physically, the temperature of your system cannot go over the melting temperature (except if you provide a heating source and that all of your steel eventually melts, then the liquid steel will heat up over 1510°C).

[sridharmani]

Your simulation seems to be interesting can you elaborate on the solver you are using and whether you made any changes to the solver.

[nando83]

I discovered that adding alpha1 and alpha1_0 files in the 0 folder solves the temperature drop. Probably, the default value for these variable is 0 and it means "liquid state" (I suppose) while setting them to 1 in internalField ("solid state") everything works.
Now It is not clear to me why, when solidification happens, the temperature follows a stepwise trend (see the attached picture).
Any hints? Is it normal?

@sridharmani: I made no modification to the solver

[sridharmani]

Hey,

I have not personally used this solver but that is for conjugate heat transfer in a phase. While solidification involves two phase where there is a phase transition. So maybe look into more appropriate solver if you are trying to achieve solidification.