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Solidification model (Ice making with spheric molds)

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Hi, I'm Marcelo from Argentina. I'm new to COMSOL and wish you can help me with my project. In simple words I want to model the heat transfer process involved in solidification. My model is very simple, I have an spheric mold filled with water and cooled by a cold air flow (I attached an image of this). I want to make a time dependant study to analyse the soldification progress under different environments (for example replacing cold air with Propylene Glycol, etc).

Since I'm really new to this program I searched for a model to use as an example and that could help me understand how can I build my project. I couldn't find anything so I hope you can give me some advice. The most difficult part as I can see is the phase change. How can I simulate the soldification progress from the outside to the center of the sphere. For example in T0 I have all water in the mold but in T1 the water near the surface will start to solidificate and a portion of the water volume now should be ice. I have a new domain with a new material (ice) that grows from the outside of the sphere to the center. One of the most important things I want to get from this model is the time of complete soldification and the time of partial solidification (70%-80%-etc)

If there is somebody there that can help me with this, please! Any model I can download?
Thanks in advance for your time

PD: Sorry for my English, hope you can understand my problem! :(


1 Reply Last Post 26.05.2014, 04:13 GMT-4

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Posted: 1 decade ago 26.05.2014, 04:13 GMT-4
Hi Roberto,

Your COMSOL should have come with model libraries (accessible from the file menu) and then in the heat transfer module look for the phase change category, it has some examples that you may find usefull.
Hi Roberto, Your COMSOL should have come with model libraries (accessible from the file menu) and then in the heat transfer module look for the phase change category, it has some examples that you may find usefull.

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