Pore-scale model of freezing inception in a porous medium

• Published in: Computer methods in applied mechanics and engineering Vol. 414; p. 116166
• Main Authors: Žák, Alexandr, Beneš, Michal, Illangasekare, Tissa H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-09-2023
• Subjects: Freezing; Nucleation; Phase field; Pore scale; Structural changes; Thawing; 74N20; Structural changes; 80A22; Nucleation; Pore scale; 74F10; Phase field; 76S05; Thawing; Freezing
• ISSN: 0045-7825; 1879-2138
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cma.2023.116166

The article describes a new model of water–ice phase transition in pores of a saturated porous medium. The model takes into account the difference in specific volume between ice and water which causes structural changes in the porous medium. Describing details of heat, phase, and structure dynamics, the model contributes to a deeper understanding of phenomena in upper soil layers subjected to either seasonal conditions or climate changes. Governing multi-physics system of equations includes the conservation of mass, momentum and energy at the pore level and includes the anisotropic Allen–Cahn equation for tracking the position of ice during nucleation and growth inside the pores. The model provides space–time behavior of key quantities and describes the interaction of growing ice with pore geometry and surrounding grains. The governing system of equations is solved by the finite-element method to provide several qualitative computational studies of the ice growth inside a porous structure.
•Soil freezing and thawing described by conservation laws.•Detailed phase interface tracking provided by the phase-field method.•Dynamics of phase transition in porous structure.•Capturing structural changes produced by the phase change.•Finite-element numerical solution.