TIME-DEPENDENT FINITE-ELEMENT MODELS OF PHASE-CHANGE PROBLEMS WITH MOVING HEAT SOURCES

A mathematical model is developed for melting of a multilayered medium while a heat source traverses one boundary. The finite-element method uses moving meshes, front-tracking using spines, an automatic time-step algorithm, and an efficient solution of the linearized equations. A novel solution method allows the fixed-mesh code to work unchanged but allows a moving mesh in other problems. The finite-element method is applied when the heater mesh mores with respect to the multilayered medium mesh. The same technique allows parallel processing for finite-element codes. The model is applied to several test problems and then to the title problem.