76th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 19, 2023 — November 21, 2023)

V0039: Melting of olive oil

Authors

• Pim Waasdorp, University of Twente
• Aron van den Bogaard, University of Twente
• Leen van Wijngaarden, University of Twente
• Sander Huisman, University of Twente

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2023.GFM.V0039

We report on the melting dynamics of frozen olive oil in quiescent water for Rayleigh numbers up to 10^9. The density difference results in an upward buoyancy-driven flow of liquid oil forming a thin film around the frozen oil. We experimentally investigate flat, cylindrical, and spherical shapes and we derive theoretical expressions for the local film thickness, velocity, and the local melt rate for these three canonical geometries. Our theoretical models compare favourably with our experimental findings.