Numerical analysis of the close-contact heat transfer of the electro-thermal drilling probes for glacier-ice exploration

The present study aims to numerically investigate the thermal characteristics of the drilling probe for glacier-ice exploration with consideration of close-contact heat transfer between the electro-thermal probe and the ice. The commercial program of Ansys Fluent (v.17.2) was used, and the enthalpy porosity method was adopted for simulating the phase change heat transfer. The dynamic layering method was also used to move the computational mesh with a given speed for understanding the correlation between the moving speed and the thermal characteristics. It is found that the thin liquid layer increases with the heating power imposed on the probe, and the molten liquid radially moves in the thin liquid layer, which is much thinner than the probe size. Also, the growth rate depends on the heating power, especially in the early stage of drilling. Moreover, the probe velocity significantly affects the evolution of the thin liquid layer.