Melting of a vertical ice cylinder inside a rotating cylindrical cavity filled with binary aqueous solution

The melting of a vertical ice cylinder into a homogeneous calcium chloride aqueous solution inside a rotating cylindrical cavity with several rotating speeds is considered experimentally. The melting mass and temperature are measured on four initial conditions of the solution and four rotating speeds of the cavity. The temperature of the liquid layer becomes uniform by the mixing effect resulting from cavity rotation and it enhances the melting rate of the ice cylinder. As the cavity‐rotating speed increases, the melting rate increases. The dimensionless melting mass is related to the Fourier number and the rotating Reynolds number in each initial condition, therefore an experimental equation that is able to quantitatively calculate the dimensionless melting mass is presented. It is seen that the melting Nusselt numbers increase again in the middle of the melting process. The ice cylinder continues to melt in spite of the small temperature difference between the ice cylinder and the solution. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 37(6): 359–373, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20211