Experimental and numerical investigation of the steady periodic solid-liquid phase-change heat transfer

A numerical and experimental investigation is presented of a periodic phase-change process dominated by heat conduction. In the experimental arrangement a plane slab of PCM is periodically heated from above. A one-dimensional control volume computer code has been developed for the solution of the corresponding mathematical model. The comparison between numerical predictions and experimental data shows good agreement, even though appreciable effects are produced by free convection and heat transfer to the environment, neglected in the model but unavoidable in the experiment. Finally, in order to study the energy stored in the process, parameters like amplitude and mean value of the oscillations are discussed as functions of the significant dimensionless numbers of the problem. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.