Prediction of thermal capacity by ice melting

Dissertant

Majid, Haydar Mirza

University

University of Technology

Faculty

Department of Mechanics and Equipments Engineering

University Country

Iraq

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2006

English Abstract

In this thesis, a numerical model is developed to simulate melting and solidification of phase change material (PCM) in a rectangular enclosure.

The model is used to estimate the temperature distribution in the enclosure, so the thermal capacity of ice was found easily.

This work is of two parts theoretical and experimental.

In the theoretical part, enthalpy method was used in the energy equation to overcome the difficulty associated with tracking interface motion during phase change.

This method is used to build a 1-D and 2-D finite volume computer code in FORTRAN (90) language.

Another code is developed to simulate the natural convection that takes effect in (PCM) during phase change, which includes both momentum and energy equations in two dimensions.

These codes are used to study five cases that cover the effect of natural convection and boundary conditions.

The first case is solidification with natural convection through (PCM).

The second case solidification with natural convection with air above (PCM).The third case is melting with natural convection through (PCM).The fourth case is melting with forced convection with air above the (PCM).

The fifth case is melting with forced convection using air as the heat source.

The final set of equations is solved by using SIMPLE and Tri Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA).

The results of these cases are presented as temperature, interface, enthalpy and velocity vectors (in case the natural convection through (PCM) is included.

In the experiment part, apparatus was built to estimate ices solidifying and melting in rectangular tank .The temperature was measured in water as a (PCM) material with time .The graph of experimental data shows a non-linear profile which agrees well with the theoretical data.

The numerical predictions are compared with experimental results and gave acceptable agreement especially in two dimension approach.

The difference is due to factors that affect experiment work like sub cooling that takes place in the beginning of solidification which will delay the creation of ice layer.

Also the growth of ice layer will act as insulation layer prevent heat from transfer to the tank.

Main Subjects

Mechanical Engineering

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-305931