الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
A validated CFD by ANSYS model is built for a melting process of PCM (gallium), inside rectangular enclosure heated from one side and cooled from another by enabling the solidification and melting model and solution of energy and momentum equations by ANSYS.
Regression model of melting front results from CFD model by ANSYS is utilized and integrated inside numerical approach by MATLAB to generate constants for Nusselt correlations that are used for Conduction equations in 2-D model by using effective conductivity during different melting stages that can be used to define melting front and temperature at different locations and times. Accordingly, the melting process can be predicted in a simple and conservative way.
The effect of the wall temperature and model aspect ratio variation on melting process have been simulated by ANSYS and analyzed.
The followings are the main outcomes from the research:
- Convection heat transfer has an important role in the phase change material melting inside the enclosure and conduction cannot be only used to solve the problem.
- The melting process of PCMs has three main stages
Pure conduction stage where liquid part is very small compared to solid part and melting front are mostly parallel to the hot wall.
Mixed convection and conduction stage where liquid part starts to increase, and convection current are built in the model due to density change.
Pure convection stage where the liquid part is major part of the model.
- Equation and constants that describe the process are generated and used by MATLAB to solve the problem in very competitive solution time.
- Impact of increasing hot wall temperature is studied and found that as the wall temperature getting higher, the melting time is decreased.
- Impact of model aspect ratio is also studied and found that as the hot wall length is increased, the melting time is also decreased