Heat, Mass, and Momentum Transfer During the Melting of Glacial Ice in Sea Water

The velocity, temperature, and concentration distributions near a melting surface of glacial, or pure, ice in saline water are determined for laminar flow conditions using integral techniques. Estimates are made of the relative thicknesses of the momentum, thermal, and mass diffusion boundary layers for a variety of the appropriate flow and thermal parameters. These findings are applied to the melting of glacial ice in sea water, but they also are applicable to other systems in which heat, mass, and momentum transfer occur simultaneously with phase transformation. The speed of sound at constant pressure in sea water is a function of temperature and salinity, and the variation of sound speed with changing environmental conditions plays an important role in underwater acoustic propagation. The results of the heat and mass transfer analyses are employed to determine the sound speed profiles within the temperature and salinity boundary layers near the melting glacial ice for free-stream water temperatures of 5 and 10 deg C.