Investigation of the modified Gaussian-based non-phase field method for numerical simulation of latent heat storage

Abstract

The simulation of phase change was an essential issue in the numerical modeling of latent heat storage. This current study compared the enthalpy method, the linear non-phase field (NPF) method, and the Gaussian-based NPF method (a=22). Based on the analysis of these three methods, a modified Gaussian-based NPF method with four steps was proposed. This method approximated the latent heat distribution to the practical distribution by modifying the Gaussian transfer coefficient a. The temperature response and melting rate were analyzed to investigate the effect of the modification method. The numerical results indicated that the temperature and melting rate deviations could be reduced significantly with the recommended coefficient range. The modified method was also validated under different dimensionless parameters, sizes, and phase change material to ensure the adaptivity of modified process. Besides, the modification method could effectively reduce the computational cost by 42.6 %, indicating the value of the established new method for industrial simulations.