Climate related phase transitions with moving boundaries by virtue of
mushy zone investigation in Al-Cu: experiment and phase-field modeling
Abstract
Studying Arctic ice formation stays in the focus of research groups over
the past decades in the context of ice cover changes, thermal budget and
climate agenda in general. Nevertheless, the phenomenon’s underlying
mechanisms are still not completely understood and described. The main
reason for the lack in understanding is the limited experimental access
to the field data, thus there is a need to build competent analogies
between the natural (ocean water – ice) and laboratory (binary alloy)
conditions of the experiment as a step of data preparation for the
verification of the mathematical model. In the current paper the
existing qualitative models describing the process of melting and
crystallization were expanded and the experimental method was developed
copying the layering of the natural ocean water – ice mixture. The
experimental set-up for studying the solidification within the
intermediate zone was designed for Al-Cu alloys and the corresponding
experimental data was used for the development of a binary phase-field
model for solidification considering moving boundaries. The model
includes the description of the free energy of both phases and their
respective diffusion coefficients. It allows modeling of the eutectic
alloys and potentially corresponding natural ocean water — ice mixture
at a mesoscopic spatial level by including the concentration-driven
phase transition. The novel results will help the quantitative
understanding of solidification phenomena and are highly-evaluated from
interdisciplinary point of view, including glaciology and geosciences,
ultimately significant for the understanding the global climate change
landscape.