Natural convection melting of nano-enhanced phase change material in a cavity with finned copper profile

Abstract

Present study is devoted to numerical simulation of heat and mass transfer inside a cooper profile filled with paraffin enhanced with Al2O3 nanoparticles. This profile is heated by the heat-generating element of constant volumetric heat flux. Two-dimensional approximation of melting process is described by the Navier-Stokes equations in non-dimensional variables such as stream function, vorticity and temperature. The enthalpy formulation has been used for description of the heat transfer. The influence of volume fraction of nanoparticles and intensity of heat generation on melting process and natural convection in liquid phase has been studied.