Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2026 / iii / Paper 332 / 2

Take $z$ vertically downward from the cold surface. The ice occupies $0<z<h(t)$ and the water occupies $z>h(t)$. The temperature satisfies the heat equationin both phases, withThe remaining interfacial condition is the Stefan conditionA schematic should show the cold surface, the descending phase boundary, the ice temperature rising from $T_b$ to $T_m$, and the water temperature tending from $T_m$ to $T_{\infty }$.

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The diffusion length suggests the similarity variableThe Neumann solution of the Stefan problem, written using the error function, isThese expressions satisfy all four thermal boundary conditions. At the interface,Since $\dot{h}=\lambda \sqrt{\kappa /t}$ and $k=\rho c_p\kappa$, the Stefan condition becomesThe second term represents heat supplied from the warm water and therefore reduces the freezing rate.

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At times long compared with the encounter time at depth $H$, the fixed depth $H$ is negligible relative to the growing diffusion lengths. Salt obeys the diffusion equation with diffusivity $D$. Withthe self-similar concentration profile in the liquid isIt has $C(h,t)=C_i$ and tends to $C_0$ in the far field.

Because the solid contains no salt, conservation of solute at the moving boundary requires the rejected solute flux from Fick's first law to equal the rate at which the interface sweeps up salt:Substituting the similarity profile givesThis relation determines $C_i$ if $\lambda$ is already known. More generally it must be solved together with the thermal Stefan condition and the interfacial phase-equilibrium relation $T_i=-m{C}_i$ from the liquidus. For $ϵ\ll 1$, salt occupies a much thinner boundary layer than heat and $C_i$ can be much larger than $C_0$.

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Before the ice reaches the salty layer, the state moves vertically in a temperature--concentration phase diagram along $C=0$: cooling crosses the pure-water melting point and produces pure ice. After the encounter, the liquid state starts at $(T_{\infty },C_0)$ and approaches the interface stateon the liquidus $T_L=-mC$. The solid remains on the $C=0$ axis.

When $ϵ\ll 1$, the solutal diffusion length $\sqrt{Dt}$ is much smaller than the thermal diffusion length $\sqrt{\kappa t}$. Immediately ahead of the interface, rejected salt makes $C$ fall steeply from $C_i$ to $C_0$, so the local liquidus $T_L=-mC$ rises steeply with depth while the actual temperature changes comparatively slowly. Constitutional supercooling occurs whereverIts local onset criterion at the interface isThe supercooled zone lies in the thin salty boundary layer immediately ahead of the planar front. A small forward protrusion then enters liquid that is already below its local freezing point, so the planar interface is susceptible to a morphological instability.

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.