An interfacial tracking model for convection-controlled melting problems

An interfacial tracking model is used to simulate melting in an enclosure in the presence of natural convection. It obtains the melting-front location by calculating the energy balance at the solid-liquid interface and is a simple and convenient method to solve the solid-liquid phase-change problem. It combines the advantages of the both deforming and fixed grids method and can handle natural convection-controlled melting and solidification problems. It is demonstrated through comparisons with various experiments and numerical results that the interfacial tracking model can be used to solve melting problems controlled by natural convection at different Rayleigh numbers ranging from 10⁵ to 10⁸.