MELTING OF A PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL IN A HORIZONTAL ANNULUS WITH DISCRETE HEAT SOURCES

Abstract

Phase change materials have found many industrial applications such as cooling of electronic devices and thermal energy storage. This paper investigates numerically the melting process of a phase change material in a two-dimensional horizontal annulus with different arrangements of two discrete heat sources. The sources are positioned on the inner cylinder of the annulus and assumed as constant-temperature boundary conditions. The remaining portion of the inner cylinder wall as well as the outer cylinder wall is considered to be insulated. The emphasis is mainly on the effects of the arrangement of the heat source pair on the fluid flow and heat transfer features. The governing equations are solved on a non-uniform O type mesh using a pressure-based finite volume method with an enthalpy porosity technique to trace the solid and liquid interface. The results are obtained at Ra=104 and presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, melting phase front, liquid fraction and dimensionless heat flux. It is observed that, depending on the arrangement of heat sources, the liquid fraction increases both linearly and non-linearly with time but will slow down at the end of the melting process. It can also be concluded that proper arrangement of discrete heat sources has the great potential in improving the energy storage system. For instance, the arrangement C3 where the heat sources are located on the bottom part of the inner cylinder wall can expedite the melting process as compared to the other arrangements.

Keywords

Dates

  • Submission Date2012-10-24
  • Revision Date2013-06-30
  • Acceptance Date2013-07-01
  • Online Date2013-07-06

DOI Reference

10.2298/TSCI121024094M

References

  1. Gong, Z.X., Mujumdar, A.S., Enhancement of energy charge-discharge rates in composite slabs of different phase change materials, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 39 (1995), 4, pp. 725-733.
  2. Zalba, B., Marín, J.M., Cabeza, L.F., Mehling, H., Review on thermal energy storage with phase Change: materials, heat transfer analysis and applications, Applied Thermal Engineering, 23 (2003), 3, pp. 251-283.
  3. Assis, E., Katsman, L., Ziskind, G., Letan, R., Numerical and experimental study of melting in a spherical shell, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 50 (2007), 9-10, pp. 1790-1804.
  4. Kenisarin, M., Mahkamov, K., Solar energy storage using phase change materials, Renewable &Sustainable Energy Reviews, 11 (2007), 9, pp. 1913-1965.
  5. Tan, F.L., Constrained and unconstrained melting inside a sphere, International Communication in Heat and Mass Transfer, 35 (2008), 4, pp. 466-475.
  6. Sharma, A., Tyagi, V.V., Chen, C.R., Buddhi, D., Review on thermal energy storage with phase change materials and applications, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13 (2009), 12, pp. 318-45.
  7. Tan, F.L., Hosseinizadeh, S.F., Khodadadi, J.M., Fan, L., Experimental and computational study of constrained melting of phase change materials (PCM) inside a spherical capsule, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 52 (2009), 15-16, pp. 3464-3472.
  8. Ismail, K.A.R., Moraes, R.I.R., A numerical and experimental investigation of different containers and PCM options for cold storage modular units for domestic applications, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 52 (2009), 19-20, pp. 4195-4202.
  9. Cabeza, L.F., Casteii, A., Barreneche, C., de Gracia, A., Fernández, A.I., Materials used as PCM in thermal energy storage in buildings: A review, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15 (2011), 3, pp. 1675-1695.
  10. Ng, K.W., Gong, Z.X., Mujumdar, A.S., Heat transfer in free convection-dominated melting of a phase change material in a horizontal annulus, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 25 (1998), 5, pp. 631-640.
  11. Khillarkar, D.B., Gong, Z.X., Mujumdar, A.S., Melting of a phase change material in concentric horizontal annuli of arbitrary cross-section, Applied Thermal Engineering, 20 (2000), 10, pp. 893-912.
  12. Darzi, A.R., Farhadi, M., Sedighi, K., Numerical study of melting inside concentric and eccentric horizontal annulus, Applied Mathematical Modelling, 36 (2012), 9, pp. 4080- 4086.
  13. Chu, H.H.S., Churchill, S.W., Patterson, C.V.S., The effect of heater size, location, aspect ratio, and boundary conditions on two-dimensional, laminar, natural convection in rectangular channels, Journal of Heat Transfer, 98 (1976), 2, pp. 194-201.
  14. Sezai, I., Mohamad, A.A., Natural convection from a discrete heat source on the bottom of a horizontal enclosure, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 43 (2000), 13, pp. 2257-2266.
  15. Deng, Q.-H., Fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of natural convection in square cavities due to discrete source-sink pairs, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 51 (2008), 25-26, pp. 5949-5957.
  16. Kadiyala, P.K., Chattopadhyay, H., Optimal location of three heat sources on the wall of a square cavity using genetic algorithms integrated with artificial neural networks, International communication in Heat and Mass Transfer, 38 (2011), 5, pp. 620-624.
  17. Saravanan, S., Sivaraj, C., Natural convection in an enclosure with a localized nonuniform heat source on the bottom wall, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011), 13-14, pp. 2820-2828.
  18. Muftuoglu, A., Bilgen, E., Conjugate heat transfer in open cavities with a discrete heater at its optimized position, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 51 (2008), 3-4, pp. 779-788.
  19. Sharma, A.K., Velusamy, K., Balaji, C., Turbulent natural convection of sodium in a cylindrical enclosure with multiple internal heat sources: A conjugate heat transfer study, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 52 (2009), 11-12, pp. 2858-2870.
  20. Zhang, W., Zhang, C., Xi, G., Conjugate conduction-natural convection in an enclosure with time-periodic sidewall temperature and inclination, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 32 (2011), 1, pp. 52-64.
  21. Kuznetsov, G.V., Sheremet, M.A., Conjugate natural convection in an enclosure with a heat source of constant heat transfer rate, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 54 (2011), 1-3, pp. 260-268.
  22. Varol, Y., Oztop, H.F., Avci, E., Estimation of thermal and flow fields due to natural convection using support vector machines (SVM) in a porous cavity with discrete heat sources, International Communication in Heat and Mass Transfer, 35 (2008), 8, pp. 928-936.
  23. Kaluri, R.S., Basak, T., Heatline analysis of thermal mixing due to natural convection in discretely heated porous cavities filled with various fluids, Chemical Engineering Science, 65 (2010), 6, pp. 2132-2152.
  24. Basak, T., Roy, S., Matta, A., Pop, I., Analysis of heatlines for natural convection within porous trapezoidal enclosures: Effect of uniform and non-uniform heating of bottom wall, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 53 (2010), 25-26, pp. 5947-5961.
  25. Kaluri, R.S. Basak, T., Role of entropy generation on thermal management during natural convection in porous square cavities with distributed heat sources, Chemical Engineering Science, 66 (2011), 10, pp. 2124-2140.
  26. Sankar, M., Do, Y., Numerical simulation of free convection heat transfer in a vertical annular cavity with discrete heating, International Communication in Heat and Mass Transfer, 37 (2010), 6, pp. 600-606.
  27. Sankar, M., Park, Y., Lopez, J.M., Do, Y., Numerical study of natural convection in a vertical porous annulus discrete heating, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 54 (2011), 7-8, pp. 1493-1505.
  28. Voller, V.R., Prakash, C., A fixed-grid numerical modeling methodology for convection-diffusion mushy region phase-change problems, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 30 (1987), 8, pp. 1709-1719.
  29. R., Dutta, A., Atta, T.K., Dutta, Experimental and Numerical Study of Heat Transfer in Horizontal Concentric Annulus Containing Phase Change Material, Can. J. Chem. Eng. 86 (2008), pp. 700-710.
  30. Gau, C. Viskanta, R., Melting and solidification of a pure metal on a vertical wall, Journal of Heat Transfer, 108 (1986), 1, pp. 174-181.
  31. Brent, A.D., Voller, V.R., Reid, K.J., Enthalpy-porosity technique for modeling convection- diffusion phase change: application to the melting of a pure metal, Numerical Heat Transfer, 13 (1988), 3, pp. 297-318.
  32. Kuehn, T.H., Goldstein, R.J., An experimental and theoretical study of natural convection in the annulus between horizontal concentric cylinders, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 74 (1976), pp. 695-719.