Author(s)

D. Mansutti, E. Bucchignani & M. M. Cerimele

Abstract

The presence of an icy crust covering several satellites of the solar system (e.g. Europa, the jovian satellite) suggested us to accomplish the numerical simulation of the Rayleigh-Benard convection flow of a horizontal layer of mushy water, covered at the top by its own ice and immersed in a low gravity field. The phase transition occurring at the ice/mushy water interface, with release/absorption of latent heat, is included in our study. Starting the simulation with ice and water at rest in a conductive temperature distribution, we pushed the computation forward enough to approach, possibly, the thermo-dynamical equilibrium. We adopt initial geometrical parameters resembling the present set-up of Europa's crust. As the changes undergoing on the satellite nowadays are imperceptible, the final computed configuration should recover the present dynamical and thermodynamical fields. We also provide the estimate of the amount of heat flowing up from the bottom of the domain that is from the inside of the planet, a quantity practically difficult to be measured even on Earth. Keywords: continuum mechanics, phase transition, heat transfer, moving boundary, numerical simulation, natural convection, low gravity, front-fixing, finite differences. 1 Introduction Due to the relevance to techniques in artificial crystal growth and metal manufacturing, in the last three decades specialists in CFD have devoted much

Keywords

continuum mechanics, phase transition, heat transfer, moving boundary, numerical simulation, natural convection, low gravity, front-fixing, finite differences.