ISSN 0001-4338, Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics, 2007, Vol. 43, No. 6, pp. 762–765.

© Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2007.

Original Russian Text © V.I. Bukreev, 2007, published in Izvestiya AN. Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 2007, Vol. 43, No. 6, pp. 826–830.

Double Diffusion during Ice Thawing in Salt Water

V. I. Bukreev
Lavrent’ev Institute of Hydrodynamics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Lavrent’eva 15,
Novosibirsk, 630090 Russia
e-mail: bukreev@hydro.nsc.ru
Received May 25, 2006; in final form, January 15, 2007

Abstract—The results of laboratory experiments showing that a jet flow penetrating to a large depth is formed
under a piece of ice of restricted dimensions (“iceberg”) during its thawing in warm salt water are presented.
This phenomenon is caused by the fact that the coefficient of molecular diffusion of heat is approximately two
orders of magnitude larger than the coefficient of molecular diffusion of salt.
DOI: 10.1134/S0001433807060102

According to the data of [1], at the temperature
20°ë and salinity 35‰, the thermal diffusivity coeffi-
cient of sea water is χ = 1.49 × 10–3 cm2/s and the coef-
ficient of molecular diffusion of salt (NaCl) under the
same conditions is D = 1.29 × 10–5 cm2/s; so, these
coefficients differ by nearly two orders of magnitude.
When the hydrophysical processes caused by this dif-
ference are described, the term “double diffusion” is
used [2]. A number of studies [1, 3–6] are devoted to
the mathematical modeling and experimental investi-
gation of double diffusion. In particular, double diffu-
sion leads to the formation of thin structures of hydro-
physical fields in the form of so-called “fingers” [2].
The influence of double diffusion on the process of
seawater freezing is noted in [3]. This study presents
the results of laboratory experiments on studying the
process of thawing of an ice piece (“iceberg”) in salt
water with a temperature T in the range 13–22°ë and
a salt (NaCl) concentration S in the range 24–36‰.
Such values of T and S are typical of seawater [1, 7].
Fresh water, whose density is smaller than the sea-
water density by 1.8–2.6%, is formed during ice thaw-
ing. Under such a large difference of densities, liquid
motion is likely to take place only near the free sur-
face. However, the performed experiments showed
that double diffusion produces a fairly intense deep-
water motion as well. When cold fresh water having a
temperature of about 0°ë comes in contact with
warmer salt water, the thermal and concentration
boundary layers are formed. Owing to a large differ-
ence between the coefficients of molecular diffusion,
the thickness of the thermal boundary layer increases
substantially faster than the concentration-layer thick-
ness. As a result, a part of the solution cools, while
retaining the initial salinity, becomes heavier, sub-
merges to a large depth, and generates eddy motion in
the surrounding liquid.
The experiments were performed in a flume 63 cm
long, 50 cm high, and 20 cm wide with walls made from
organic glass 1.8 cm thick. The air temperature in the
room was 13–15°ë. The flume was filled with a transpar-
ent solution of common salt to a depth of 46–48 cm.
Then a piece of ice imitating an iceberg was carefully
placed onto the free surface of the solution. The charac-
teristic transverse dimension of the “iceberg” was 10–
15 cm. The “iceberg” had different shapes and was
located either in the middle or near one of the walls of the
flume. Its initial temperature was (–10 ± 2)°ë.
The three-dimensional pattern of the liquid motion
in the flume, which continuously changes in time, was
well-traceable visually. Immediately under the “ice-
berg,” the cooled solution lowered as a concentrated
jet entraining the surrounding liquid. Both in the jet
and in the surrounding liquid, eddies of various shapes
and sizes were formed and rapidly collapsed. Eddies
in the surrounding liquid were considerably larger
than those in the jet. Since the flume height was
restricted, the limiting depth of jet submersion could
not be determined. One can note only that the distance
from the “iceberg” to the flume bottom amounted to
about eight diameters of the jet, and the velocity of
submersion did not decrease throughout this distance.
The thickness of the thawing-water layer near the
free surface increased with time, whereas the “ice-
berg” dimension decreased; thus, a progressively
smaller part of ice remained in salt water. Neverthe-
less, the deep-water flow retained its structure and
intensity to a nearly complete thawing of the “ice-
berg” (for several hours in these experiments). After
that, the liquid motion ceased sufficiently rapidly and
a stable density stratification close to a two-layer strat-
ification was established. Fresh thawing water with a
temperature of about 4.5°ë was almost completely
concentrated in the upper layer about 2 cm thick, and
in the underlying salt water, the density decreased

762
 DOUBLE DIFFUSION DURING ICE THAWING IN SALT WATER 763

(a)
z, cm 0 1 cm/s

0
30

20

10 cm

10
Fig. 1. Disturbance of the density field: ρ = 1.0252 g/cm3,
t = 92 s.

only by fractions of per mille compared to its initial 0

value. Subsequently, the density in the flume leveled
off owing only to molecular diffusion and heat
exchange with the laboratory room. The temperature
leveled off within 4–5 h, and an irregular salinity dis-
tribution over depth was retained during several days.
The illustrations in Figs. 1–5 give some idea of the
deep-water flow pattern. The values of the initial tem-
perature T, initial solution density ρ, and time t from
the moment of “iceberg” submersion (with the uncer-
tainty ±5 s) are indicated in the figure captions.
The illustration presented in Fig. 1 is obtained by a
nonstandard shadow method with computer process-
ing of the initial information. This method was devel-
oped by E.V. Ermanyuk and N.V. Gavrilov [8]. If this
method is used, no disturbances are introduced into
the liquid; therefore, this method objectively confirms
the existence of a deep-water flow in the problem
under consideration. This method provides informa-
tion about density-field disturbances averaged across
the flume. In our experiments, the density distur-
bances outside the main jet were beyond the method’s
sensitivity and are not noticeable in the presented
illustration. In order to increase the resolution, we
decreased the field of view of the video camera. In
particular, only the upper part of the jet flow under the
“iceberg” is shown in Fig. 1.
The information about the liquid-velocity field in
the longitudinal plane of symmetry of the flume at two
moments presented in Figs. 2 and 3 is obtained with
the use of the so-called PIV method. The technique
and software of Dantec were used. Aluminum-powder
particles of micron sizes were added to the solution.
The particle concentration was about 1mg/l, and their
sedimentation rate was about 0.01 mm/s. The arrows
in Figs. 2a and 3a show the directions of particle
motion in the plane of the light knife used in the PIV
method, and the arrow lengths correspond to the mag-
nitudes of the two-dimensional velocity vectors in the
specified plane. The corresponding scales are indi-
(b)
30
20
10
0 10 20 30 40
x, cm
Fig. 2. (a) Velocity field and (b) streamlines at ρ =
1.0258 g/cm3 and t = 40 s.
cated in the figures. The vertical and horizontal veloc-
ity components in the light-knife plane can be deter-
mined from the directions and lengths of these arrows.
The vertical velocity component in the jet was about
1 cm/s. The magnitude of the velocity in the surround-
ing liquid did not exceed 0.1 cm/s.
The instantaneous streamlines corresponding to
the data of Figs. 2a and 3a are shown in Figs. 2b and
3b. The streamlines do not coincide with the trajecto-
ries of particle motion, because the flow is essentially
unsteady. Nevertheless, the presence of closed stream
points to an eddy character of the motion. Only the
large-scale eddy motion is reflected in Figs. 2 and 3.
The video frames in Figs. 4 and 5 were obtained
when the pattern of thawing-water motion was visual-
ized by a weak aqueous solution of ink. Ink particles
increased the water density by no more than 0.02%.

IZVESTIYA, ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC PHYSICS Vol. 43 No. 6 2007

764
(‡)
z, cm 0 1 cm/s
30
20
10
0
(b)
30
20
10
0 10 20 30
x, cm
Fig. 3. As in Fig. 2, but at t = 70 s.
This increase is much smaller than the density change
by 0.25–0.30% caused by temperature variations and
the density change by 2.0–2.6% caused by salinity
variations, both characteristic of the experiments
under consideration. To visualize a weak motion at a
large distance from the “iceberg,” vertical garlands of
plasticine balls coated with a malachite pigment were
placed into the solution. During flow around the balls,
the pigment was involved into the hydrodynamic trace
and fairly exactly indicated the trajectories of motion
of liquid particles.
The video frame in Fig. 4a relates to the initial
stage of ice thawing, when the thickness and size of
the colored spot of fresh water near the free surface
are still small. In this experiment, the “iceberg” had
dimensions of 15 and 19 cm along and across the
flume, respectively, and its shape differed only
slightly from that of a rectangular parallelepiped. The
IZVESTIYA, ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC PHYSICS
BUKREEV
(‡)
(b)
Fig. 4. Initial and developed stages of the flow at ρ =
1.0247 g/cm3; (a) t = 20 s, (b) t = 720 s.
distribution pattern of the colored liquid in Fig. 4b was
obtained within 12 min after the beginning of ice
thawing, when a rather thick layer of fresh water had
40 formed on the free surface. In this illustration, the
“iceberg” has a shape of a hemisphere 15 cm in diam-
eter. The plasticine balls threaded on thin wires and
colored with a malachite pigment are seen near the
left- and right-hand end walls of the flume.
Above, we presented the results of experiments
during which the initial solution density was the same
in the entire flume. We also performed experiments
with a stable density stratification in the flume prior to
ice submersion. The video frame from the experiment
when the flume was filled with two layers of the solu-
tion is presented in Fig. 5. A 18-cm-thick solution
layer with a salinity of 34‰ was overlain by a layer
28 cm thick with a salinity of 25‰. A transitional
layer (pycnocline) with a characteristic thickness of
about 1 cm was formed between the layers with con-
stant densities. The “iceberg” was prepared from
pressed snow saturated with an ink solution. The dis-
tribution pattern of the colored liquid in Fig. 5 was
obtained within about 10 min after the beginning of
“iceberg” thawing. During this experiment, the col-
ored liquid does not descend to the bottom but spreads
over the pycnocline.
Vol. 43 No. 6 2007
 DOUBLE DIFFUSION DURING ICE THAWING IN SALT WATER
Fig. 5. Flow pattern for the initial stable density stratification.
The experiments with the ink-coloring of thawing
water show (Figs. 3–5) that not only saline water but
also considerably lighter fresh water are involved into
the jet flow under the “iceberg.” This circumstance
somewhat affects the content of salt and oxygen in the
layer encompassed by the deep-water flow. However,
the main part of thawing water spreads over the free
surface. It is seen from Figs. 2–4 that the liquid
located directly within the fresh upper layer outside
the “iceberg” virtually does not submerge. Only a part
of this liquid flows to the “iceberg” and then is
involved into depth by the jet flow. This phenomenon
can be explained by the fact that, for an intense sub-
mersion, the temperature gradient in the contact zone
must be sufficiently large.
A significantly slower deep-water flow with veloc-
ities of hundredths of a mm/s arises from the process
of water evaporation from the free surface. During
evaporation, the surface-layer temperature decreases
owing to the phase transition of water to vapor and the
salt concentration in this layer increases. Both of these
factors increase the density. The following experiment
is illustrated in Fig. 6.
The flume was filled with a homogeneous salt solu-
tion with a concentration of 26‰. About 0.5 ml of the
solution of ink in fresh water was poured from a
pipette onto the free surface. The temperatures of the
salt and ink solutions were the same. Since the colored
water was initially fresh, it spread over the free sur-
face alone for about 30 min. Then, the colored liquid
slowly started to submerge in the form of thin jets. The
distribution pattern of the colored liquid shown in
Fig. 6 formed within approximately 110 min after ink-
solution pouring. During this experiment, the temper-
ature decrease near the free surface relative to the tem-
perature in the bulk of salt solution was about 1°ë [9].
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to N.V. Gavrilov, who prepared the
illustrations with the use of the shadow and PIV meth-
ods.
IZVESTIYA, ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC PHYSICS
765
Fig. 6. Deep-water flow caused by evaporation: ρ =
1.0253 g/cm3.
This study was supported by the Russian Founda-
tion for Basic Research, project no. 04-01-00040.
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