Abstract
The present numerical study is conducted to analyze melting process within a rectangular enclosure filled by phase change material (PCM) vertically heated from one side. The right hot wall and the left cold wall are maintained at temperatures, Th=38.3 °C and Tc =28.3 °C, respectively, and it was filled by solid PCM Gallium initially at temperature Tc. The horizontal walls are insulated. A transient numerical model is developed to study the heat transfer and melting behaviours, and the natural convection is accounted. To enhance the heat transfer and the melting process of the PCM, fins with a rectangular and triangular shape are proposed. Moreover, the effects of both thermophysical properties and fins integration on the flow structure and heat transfer characteristics are investigated in detail. The melt fraction contours with the natural convection driven flow are performed and compared, as well as the temperature distributions for a Rayleigh number of around Ra= 106. It is found that the rate of the melting increases with the elevation in the values of specific heat capacity Cp as well as the thermal conductivity λ of the PCM Gallium. The results show also that the rectangular fin accelerates the PCM melting faster than the triangular fin’s shape thanks to the increased exchange area.
Highlights
Nowadays, thermal energy storage improvement using phase change materials (PCMs) has become a highly central issue of major importance in the scientific research community [1]
The numerical study investigates the melting of PCM Gallium in a rectangular enclosure of size 88.9mm×63.5mm with constant hot temperature from the right side and cold temperature from the left wall of the domain and other horizontal sides are perfectly
As the time elapsed to 10 minutes the liquid PCM having lower density and higher temperature rises up and moves downward and this continues for a large number of cycles
Summary
Thermal energy storage improvement using phase change materials (PCMs) has become a highly central issue of major importance in the scientific research community [1]. Melting coupled with natural convection in enclosures containing a PCM has been the subject of many experimental and numerical studies due its wide area of interest in several fields such as passive cooling of electrical or electronic components, thermal insulation and latent energy storage [2,3]. The effectiveness of cooling devices using PCM integrated in electrical components depends on the melting speed of the PCM so that the latent heat plays its role rapidly and over time [4]. Two-dimensional CFD simulations were performed to simulate the melting process of a phase change material (PCM) filling a rectangular cavity which includes fins. The CFD software OpenFoam was used in order to carry out the numerical simulations and to explain the numerical observations and results
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