Conference article

Convective Melting Modeling Approach for Phase Change Materials with Variable Boundary Heating

Donato Rubinetti
Institute of Thermal- and Fluid-Engineering, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland

Daniel A. Weiss
Institute of Thermal- and Fluid-Engineering, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland

Arnab Chaudhuri
Department of Civil Engineering and Energy Technology, OsloMet — Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

Dimitrios Kraniotis
Department of Civil Engineering and Energy Technology, OsloMet — Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

Download articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.3384/ecp18153103

Published in: Proceedings of The 59th Conference on Simulation and Modelling (SIMS 59), 26-28 September 2018, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 153:15, p. 103-110

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Published: 2018-11-19

ISBN: 978-91-7685-494-5

ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)

Abstract

The present study conceives a numerical model for phase change materials following the apparent heat capacity method where the phase change occurs within a chosen temperature interval. A multiphysical modeling approach to satisfy the coupled momentum, energy and continuity conservation equations whilst avoiding numerical singularities is applied. By means of a 2D test-case geometry with variable boundary heating the influence of natural convection within the melted liquid zone is visualized. Corresponding non-dimensional governing equations are analysed to quantify the dominant contributing terms. It turns out that for sufficiently small Grashof number, or consequently small Rayleigh numbers the influence of natural convection can be neglected, thus simplyfing the problem substantially. The modeling approach has been adapted to a 2D-axisymmetric geometry within the scope of experimental validation. The simulation results and experimental data show reasonably good agreement. The model is numerically stable and suitable to facilitate design of latent heat storage systems.

Keywords

Phase Change Materials, Fluid Flow, Heat Transfer, Phase Transition, Natural Convection, Melting, Latent Heat Storage

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