THERMAL SCIENCE
International Scientific Journal
EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL STUDY ON MELTING PROCESS OF PARAFFIN IN A VERTICAL ANNULAR CYLINDER
ABSTRACT
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.
KEYWORDS
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2016-05-04
PAPER REVISED: 2018-03-08
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2018-03-23
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2018-04-28
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR
2019, VOLUME
23, ISSUE
Issue 2, PAGES [525 - 535]
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