THE EFFECT OF CONVECTION ON AXISYMMETRIC PARABOLIC DENDRITES

Moving boundary solutions of the Navier Stokes and energy equations are obtained for shape-preserving isothermal paraboloids of revolution by using the Oseen viscous flow approximation. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the precise data of Glicksman et al. on succinonitrilc.

The intensity of thermal convection as indicated by the Grashof number is shown to increase approximately as the inverse of the square of the super-cooling which may have important implications in microgravity experiments.