Latent Heat-of-Fusion Energy Storage: Experiments on Heat Transfer from Cylinders During Melting

Abstract

Melting from an array of three staggered, electrically heated cylinders imbedded in a paraffin (n-octadecane) has been studied. The shape of the melting front has been determined photographically, and the local heat transfer coefficients were measured using a shadowgraph technique. The experiments provide conclusive evidence of the important role played by natural convection on the timewise variation of the melt shape, the surface temperature and the instantaneous local as well as circumferentially averaged heat transfer coefficients around the imbedded heat sources. After a common solid-liquid interface is formed around the cylinders, natural convection circulation around each cylinder interacts strongly with the other two cylinders. The arrangement of heat sources affects significantly the melt shape but the circumferentially averaged instantaneous heat transfer coefficients differ only by about 10 percent for the two arrangements studied. The experimental findings indicate that natural convection effects are important and should be considered in analysis and design of systems involving phase change.