A Projection Method for Solid-Liquid Phase Transitions with Natural Convection

A projection method for solving convection dominated solid-liquid phase transitions on a fixed, Cartesian, staggered grid is presented. A melting cavity case has been simulated and compared to an experimental study of pure gallium. The difference between a 3D and a 2D simulation is highlighted here. In addition, an attempt was made at finding a non-dimensional group that correlated well with the global liquid fraction. Finally, simulations of two mould-melt casting geometries with and without convective energy transport highlights the effect of the convective currents.