Study of the effect of convection on close contact melting of high Prandtl number substances

Abstract

A study is conducted to examine the role of convection on close contact melting of a high Prandtl number phase change material, i.e. ice, resting on a heated plate. A convection dominated model is proposed and its predictions are compared to a conduction dominated model and to experimental data. Results indicate that convection plays a leading role in the process of close contact melting for Ste eff ⩾ 0.1 . Convection reduces the heat flux at the solid–liquid interface thereby slowing down the melting rate. The effect of inertia forces is negligible during the entire melting process while surface tension becomes important only near the end. It is also shown that buoyancy forces reduce the heat transfer rate at the solid–liquid interface.