The fluid mechanics of solidification

Abstract

Intense fluid motions can be generated by the solidification of a binary liquid. This review paper describes systematically some of the concepts involved in the fluid mechanics of solidification. It also presents quantitative calculations for the fluid motion, the rate of growth of solid and the evolution of both the thermal and the compositional fields in various geometries. The results of many of the calculations are favourably compared with data from laboratory experiments using aqueous solutions.