Shaping of solids under natural convection

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• Megan Davies Wykes (University of Cambridge)
• Thursday 20 October 2022, 11:30-12:30
• Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, CB3 0EZ.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Catherine Pearson.

Fluids sculpt many of the shapes we see in the world around us. We present a new mathematical model describing the shape evolution of a body that dissolves or melts under gravitationally stable buoyancy-driven convection, driven by thermal or solutal transfer at the solid-fluid interface. For high Schmidt number, the system is reduced to a single integro-differential equation for the shape evolution. Focusing on the particular case of a cone, we derive complete predictions for the underlying self-similar shapes, intrinsic scales and descent rates. We will present the results of new laboratory experiments, which show an excellent match to the theory. By analysing all initial power-law shapes, we uncover a surprising result that the tips of melting or dissolving bodies can either sharpen or blunt with time subject to a critical condition.

This talk is part of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF) series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cambridge Energy Seminars
• Department of Earth Sciences seminars
• Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF)
• Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, CB3 0EZ
• NanoDTC Energy Materials Talks
• Open Plan Area, Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, Madingley Rise CB3 0EZ
• history
• ps635

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