An experimental study of solidification of a pure melt

An experimental study of one-dimensional solidification of n-octadecane was performed. The experimental setup consisted of a cylindrical Plexiglas test cell with a copper heat exchanger positioned at the bottom. Three horizontally mounted thermocouple probes placed at approximately 3, 6, and 9 mm from the cold surface were used to gather temperature data during solidification. The front movement was recorded via a Super-VHS camera from which digital still pictures were obtained for measurement. Several experiments were conducted to simulate conditions for which exact solutions for the solidification are available. The results show excellent agreement with the exact solutions. Two further experiments were completed for conditions that did not have exact solutions in order to extend the benchmark quality data available to researchers of inverse numerical solidification techniques.