NUMERICAL STUDY OF NATURAL CONVECTION DOMINATED MELTING OF A PCM WITH CONJUGATE FORCED CONVECTION

1995 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-469
Author(s):  
M. Lacroix

This paper presents a numerical analysis of natural convection dominated melting inside a rectangular enclosure coupled with forced convection heat transfer in a transport fluid via a finite conductance heat exchanging surface. A computational methodology based on a stream function-vorticity-temperature formulation is adopted and the irregular shape of the moving solid-liquid interface is treated with body-fitted coordinates. The model is then employed to investigate the interaction between natural convection in the PCM filled cavity and forced convection in the HTF. Numerical experiments were carried out for Rayleigh numbers, Ra, between 2.08‧108 and 4.60‧109, modified Reynolds numbers, Re between 4.23 and 423.0, wall-PCM thermal diffusivity ratios, α, between 5.0 and 10.0 and dimensionless wall thickness, w, between 0.005 and 0.05. Results show that the melting process is increasingly delayed by heat conduction across a wall of decreasing thermal conductivity and/or increasing thickness. This effect is accentuated for low HTF flow rates (Re ~ 4.23). On the other hand, for a wail of given thickness and thermal conductivity, the effect of increasing the HTF flow rate on the melting process becomes imperceptible for Re ≥ 4.23.

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.5) ◽  
pp. 587
Author(s):  
Jay R. Patel ◽  
Manish K. Rathod

Latent heat energy storage using macro encapsulated phase change material is an emerging technique for thermal energy storage applica- tions. The main aim of the present investigation is to investigate the melting process of phase change material filled in different shaped configurations. The selected different cavities are square, circular and triangular. A mathematical model based on convection dominated melting is required to be developed, especially in view of the complex flow geometries encountered in such problems. Thus, an attempt has been made to develop a model using ANSYS Fluent 16.2 to investigate the heat transfer rate and solid-liquid interface visualization of PCM filled in different shapes of cavity. It is found that triangular shaped macro encapsulated PCM melts faster than square and circu- lar shaped encapsulated PCM.   


Author(s):  
W. Rashmi ◽  
A. F. Ismail ◽  
W. Asrar ◽  
M. Khalid ◽  
Y. Faridah

Natural convection heat transfer in nanofluids has been investigated numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. Analytical models that describe molecular viscosity, density, specific heat, thermal conductivity and coefficient of thermal expansion have been considered in terms of volume fraction and size of nanoparticles, size of base fluid molecule and temperature. The uniform suspensions of different concentrations of Al2O3 in base fluid (water) are considered as nanofluids. Thermal conductivity of the nanofluids has been obtained by solving the governing equations in conjunction with Kinetic model and interfacial layer model using FLUNET 6.3. Numerical simulations have been carried out in a closed pipe for L/D = 1.0. The numerical values of k have also been compared with the experimental values available in the literature. Both the models gave similar predictions with experimentally compared values of k.


1984 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. C. Chow ◽  
S. R. Husain ◽  
A. Campo

A numerical investigation was conducted to study the simultaneous effects of free convection and axial conduction on forced-convection heat transfer inside a vertical channel at low Peclet numbers. Insulated entry and exit lengths were provided in order to assess the effect of upstream and downstream energy penetration due to axial conduction. The fluid enters the channel with a parabolic velocity and uniform temperature profiles. A constant-property (except for the buoyancy term), steady-state case was assumed for the analysis. Results were categorized into two main groups, the first being the case where the channel walls were hotter than the entering fluid (heating), and the second being the reverse of the first (cooling). For each group, heat transfer between the fluid and the walls were given as functions of the Grashof, Peclet, and Reynolds numbers.


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