Effect of Pore Distribution on Melting Behavior of Paraffin in Fractal Metal Foam**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51706101, Key Laboratory of Solar Energy Science and Technology Foundation of Jiangsu Province under Grant No. KLSST201704, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant No. 30917011328

Abstract

An unsteady model of melting heat transfer in metal foam filled with paraffin is developed and numerically analyzed. In the model, the pore distribution of metal foam is described by Sierpinski fractal. By this fractal description, six types of metal foams with the identical porosity, different pore distributions are reconstructed. The effect of pores distribution on the heat transfer performance of the paraffin/copper foam composite is emphatically investigated. The solid-liquid distribution, the evolution of the melting front, the dynamic temperature response and the total melting time in these six fractal structures are all examined and analyzed. The results indicate that, the pores distribution has a significant impact on the melting heat transfer of the paraffin in the metal foam. When the first-level fractal pore is located near the heat source boundary, the thermal hysteresis effect of the paraffin on the solid matrix heat transfer is more significant. If the cross-sectional length of the pores along the normal direction of heat transfer is larger, the heat transfer barrier of the solid matrix is greater. It is favorable for the paraffin heat transfer when the pores specific surface area is larger.