TY - JOUR
TI - Experimental and numerical study on melting process of paraffin in a vertical annular cylinder
AU - Chen Yangli
AU - Peng Changhong
AU - Guo Yun
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2019
VL - 23
IS - 2
SP - 525
EP - 535
PT - Article
AB - The melting process of paraffin wax in a central heating vertical annular  cylinder was simulated by a numerical model based on the enthalpy-porosity  method. The numerical results were validated against the experimental  results. The melting experiment was performed in a thermostatic water tank  which can provide good initial conditions and constant temperature boundary  conditions. The electrical heating rod located in the central of the cylinder  was supposed to provide heating at a constant power. Good agreements between  experimental and numerical heat transfer data were achieved. Natural  convection and melt front interface were well predicted by simulation.  However, considerable differences appeared due to mushy zone constant in the  model. A recommended value of mushy zone constant was obtained by comparison  to the experiment. The influence of thermal conductivity coefficient was also  analyzed numerically.