Phase transition water-Ice in CaeLinux

Hi

I wonder, is it possible to model the evolution of a boundary ( well, sort of,
since we are talking of the Stefan problem here,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_problem ) between two regions separating two
phases of the same material in Calculix or in Code Aster...?

I am not considering the convective heat transport in the ice-water interface only conduction with two different heat conductivities for water and for ice, in short, i assume that water is quiescent and there are no appreciable temperature gradients in water, or density is not a function of temperature, this simplification allows me to solve the heat conduction/phase transition problem uncoupled from the navier stokes equations for the fluid part.

For instance... in a cooling tube, immersed in water, a refrigerant passes
removing heat from the surrounding water, water freezes, but the heat rejection
rate is gradually decreased because of an ever thickening layer of Ice around
the tube, with a very low thermal conductivity.

Can i track the evolution of the ice shell thickness for a constant enthalpy
sink in my coolant tube...?

Best regards

Alex

PS : This problem can be solved numerically with a nonlinear differential
equation in radial coordinate and time, ( since i assume axial symmetry ) assuming cylindrical coordinates, and
an infinite Z extension of the cooling tube.

I just wanted to know if there is a way the FEA solvers in CaeLinux can solve this, or will I have to code this in Scilab, for instance...?

Hi Jcugnoni

Thanks for the hint , but I'm afraid Elmer is not my league.. I have never used this software.. seems exceedingly complex...

What are the meshers...?
How does one define a case...?
what is the workflow involved in using elmer for an amalysis...?
What are the post processors..?

I can do all this in Calculix, which i am quite familiar with, or Code Aster... but I have never used Elmer...

Best regards

Alex