Three dimensional melting case of phase change material composited with heat generating and local thermal non-equilibrium copper foam under the magnetic impacts

Abstract

The melting process of phase change material (PCM) in case of two dimensional flows was presented in abundance while there is few studies concern with three dimensional melting processes. Therefore, this paper aims to present a comprehensive study on the three-dimensional melting process of phase change material (PCM) combined with copper foam in the local thermal non-equilibrium when the Lorentz force is applied. The flow domain is 3D non-Darcy porous cubic enclosures and melting process is depending on the porosity- enthalpy approach. The convective flow is, also, controlled by inner heated cylinders and the magnetic field has the opposite direction of the gravity acceleration. The governing parameters in this study are the Fourier number F0(0≤F0≤0.3), radius of the cylinder (0.05≤r≤0.2), the Darcy number (10-2≤Da≤10-5), the Hartmann number 0≤Ha≤100) and the Rayleigh number (104≤Ra≤106). The 3D SIMPLE algorithm is applied for the pressure distributions and an augmentation in both of the average liquid fraction and Nusselt number is obtained as the radius of the cylinder is increased. Furthermore, the decrease in the Darcy number causes a reduction in the meting process. A direct application of this study can be found in the thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems with latent heat and PCM.