When an ice plate melts into a binary aqueous solution, a very coarse melting surface called “sharkskin” appears on the flat melting front immediately after melting begins. It is well known that the sharkskin enhances the melting rate of the ice plate; however, the flow pattern near the sharkskin has not been studied in detail thus far. In this study, we adopt the PIV method to investigate the flow field and the shadowgraph method to investigate the concentration field near the melting front of an ice plate, which simulates sharkskin morphology; the correlations between the flow field and the melting front shapes are considered. Melt water rises from the convex parts of the melting surface because of buoyancy due to the concentration gradient, and the highconcentration solution flows toward the centers of the concave parts. These flow structures maintain the melting front convex and concave configuration.
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