Numerical study of natural convection effect during solidification of pure tin metal in a quasi-2D trapezoidal cavity

Akkaoui, Hafsa; Foukhari, Youness; EL GLILI, Issa; Sammouda, Mohamed; Belhouideg, Soufiane

doi:10.22055/jacm.2026.49110.5742

Numerical study of natural convection effect during solidification of pure tin metal in a quasi-2D trapezoidal cavity

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Hafsa Akkaoui ¹

Youness Foukhari ¹

Issa EL GLILI ²

Mohamed Sammouda ¹

Soufiane Belhouideg ¹

¹ Laboratory of Research in Physics and Engineering Sciences (LRPSI), Polydisciplinary faculty, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal, Morocco

² Department of Physics, FST Errachidia, Moulay Ismaïl University, Morocco

10.22055/jacm.2026.49110.5742

Abstract

The control of solidification in metallic systems is an important area in thermal engineering and materials processing, for influencing the microstructure formation, mechanical properties, and overall product quality. A numerical investigation of the solidification of pure tin under natural convection in a quasi-2D trapezoidal cavity, which the horizontal walls are thermally insulated and the side walls are maintained at constant but different temperatures, was examined in this paper. The study focuses on the influence of wall inclination and cooling rate on the total solidification time with the phase change process using the enthalpy–porosity formulation. The conservation equations of energy and momentum are solved using the finite element method. the results provide the temporal evolution of the flow field, temperature distribution and the progress of solid-liquid interface. As findings, both the inclination angle and the cooling rate provide effective tools to control solidification time. Good agreement between the numerical predictions and experimental data confirms the accuracy of the proposed approach. A quasi-2D model has been investigated due to its ability to predict approximatively the three-dimensional cavity and capture not only the thermal and dynamic fields but also the shape and localization of the solidification front.

Keywords

solidification

quasi-2D

natural convection

finite element method

pure metal

Subjects