Coupling of wall conduction with natural convection-dominated melting of a phase change material

Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Numerical Heat Transfer. Part A, Applications; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/10407789408956005· OSTI ID:7190807

Lacroix, M ^[1]

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1. Univ. de Sherbrooke, Quebec (Canada). Dept. de Genie Mecanique

This paper presents a numerical analysis of natural convection-dominated melting from a wall of finite conductance. A computational methodology based on a stream function/vorticity/temperature formulation is presented. The irregular shape of the moving solid-liquid phase front is treated with generalized curvilinear coordinates. The model is then employed to investigate the interaction between convection in the cavity filled with phase change material (PCM) and conduction in the heated wall. Experiments are carried out for Rayleigh numbers between 2.03 [times] 10[sup 8] and 4.60 [times] 10[sup 9], wall-PCM thermal diffusivity ratios [bar [alpha]] between 1.0 and 1000.0, and dimensionless wall thicknesses [bar w] between 0.005 and 0.25. The results indicate that for [bar [alpha]] < 10 and increasing wall thickness, conduction plays a significant role in the melting process. It delays the onset of buoyancy-driven convection and, as a result, slows down melting. In return, buoyancy-driven motion of the melt influences conduction heat transfer across the wall.

• OSTI ID: 7190807
• Journal Information: Numerical Heat Transfer. Part A, Applications; (United States), Journal Name: Numerical Heat Transfer. Part A, Applications; (United States) Vol. 26:4; ISSN 1040-7782; ISSN NHAAES
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
250600* -- Energy Storage-- Thermal
CALCULATION METHODS
CAVITIES
CONVECTION
ENERGY TRANSFER
HEAT TRANSFER
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NATURAL CONVECTION
PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS
THERMAL CONDUCTION