Numerical study of melting inside concentric and eccentric horizontal annulus

This paper presents numerical investigations on melting of phase change material using N-eicosane inside a cylindrical container. Numerical simulations are performed for symmetric melting of phase change material between two cylinders in concentric and eccentric arrays using the FLUENT software which is sub-cooled initially to 1 degrees C. Inner cylindrical tube is considered hot wall while outer tube is insulated. Predicted result shows that melting rate is the same approximately for concentric and eccentric array before time of 15 min. After this time, melting rate decreases in concentric array. It is due to the pure conduction between hot tube and cold solid phase change material. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.