Study of Combined Effect of Inclination and Partial Fins on Melting of Phase Change Material in A Rectangular Enclosure Using CFD

Dasari Kondala Rao; Srinivas Kolla; C Tara Sasanka; D Sameer Kumar

doi:10.21467/jmsm.1.1.30-38

Authors

Dasari Kondala Rao Department of Mechanical Engineering, RVR & JC college of engineering, Guntur
Srinivas Kolla Department of Mechanical Engineering, RVR & JC college of engineering, Guntur
C Tara Sasanka Department of Mechanical Engineering, RVR & JC college of engineering, Guntur
D Sameer Kumar Department of Mechanical Engineering, RVR & JC college of engineering, Guntur

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21467/jmsm.1.1.30-38

Abstract

This study presents the combined effect of inclination and internal fins on melting rate of PCM in a rectangular enclosure (8.89cm×6.35cm). Rectangular enclosure has a hot wall with a temperature of 311K, a cold wall with a temperature of 301.3K and the other two walls are insulated. Gallium with very low prandtl number is taken as the PCM in this study. First, the individual effects of different inclinations (0⁰, 45⁰ and 90⁰) of the enclosure on melting rate of PCM are studied followed by the study of the effect of internal fins. Then we provide a combined environment of inclination and partial fins and obtain the results of liquid fraction, velocity contours and temperature distributions. Plots for liquid fraction and average temperatures with respect to time are also obtained. Finally, the results and plots of combined effect are compared with those of other conditions. From the comparison we conclude that combined effect of inclination and partial fins under constant normal gravity condition greatly enhances the heat transfer in PCM.

Keywords:

Computational Fluid Dynamics, Phase Change Materials, Thermal behaviour, Partial Fins

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