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What shape melts the slowest?

ORAL

Abstract

We investigate the melting rate of a variety of shapes of ice melting in quiescent water using direct numerical simulations. We vary the size and shape of the ice, varying the Rayleigh number from 500 to 10^9. The shape for which the ice melt slowest ("optimal shape") strongly depends on the Rayleigh number. Due to the density anomaly of water, also the ambient temperature dramatically affects the optimal melting shape. We rationalize the obtained numerical results, based on the flow field.

Presenters

  • Thijs van den Ham

    University of Twente

Authors

  • Thijs van den Ham

    University of Twente

  • Rui Yang

    University of Twente

  • Roberto Verzicco

    Univ of Roma Tor Vergata

  • Detlef Lohse

    University of Twente, Physics of Fluids Group, Max Planck Center Twente for Complex Fluid Dynamics, and J. M. Burgers Center for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, 7500AE Enschede, Netherlands

  • Sander Huisman

    University of Twente