Exact solution for a two-phase Stefan problem with power-type latent heat

Abstract

A two-phase Stefan problem with latent heat a general power function of position is investigated. The background of the problem can be found in the soil-freezing process during the application of the artificial ground-freezing technique. After introducing the specific engineering condition, the governing equations of a two-phase Stefan problem are developed. An exact solution for the problem is established using the similarity transformation technique and the theory of the Kummer functions. It is proved that the coefficients in the solution can be appropriately determined if certain inequality is satisfied. Special cases of the solution are discussed, and several solutions reported in the literature are recovered. A similar two-phase Stefan problem involving first type of boundary condition is also introduced and solved. The coefficients in the solution can always be properly determined with no additional requirement. In the end, computational examples of the solution are presented and discussed. The exact solution provides a useful benchmark that can be used for verifying general numerical algorithms of Stefan problems, and it is also advantageous in the context of the inverse problem analysis.