Melting of a solid sphere under forced and mixed convection: Flow characteristics

An experimental investigation on flow around a melting ice sphere in horizo ntally flowing water is conducted. The flow field is measured quantitativel y using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. The distributions o f velocity, streamline, and z-component of rotation vector around the ice s phere are obtained for different upstream velocities and temperatures. Gene ral flow characteristics around the melting ice sphere and effects of veloc ity and temperature are analyzed. The visualization of melting of a dyed ic e sphere is also conducted to investigate the motion of the melt, its mixin g with mainstream, and the separation of the boundary layer Comparisons wit h the flow around a non-melting ball are made to investigate the effect of melting on the flow boundary layer The original experimental results are pu blished to serve as benchmark data for numerical model development.