Convective Phenomena in Mushy Layers

Abstract

Since the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics review of mushy layers by Worster (1997) , there have been significant advances in the understanding of convective processes in mushy layers. These advances have come in the areas of ( a) more detailed analysis, computation, and understanding of convective instabilities and chimney convection in binary alloys; ( b) investigations of diffusive and convective transport processes in ternary alloys; and ( c) applications of mushy layer theory in materials science, sea ice, and polar climate modeling, as well as other geophysical applications such as the convective dynamics of the Earth's core. Our objective for this review is to provide an updated account of the understanding of mushy layer convection and related applications and, in doing so, to provide a new resource to the fluid dynamics research community interested in these complex systems.