Heat transfer enhancement of a direct contact melting process by oscillating motion

Direct contact melting takes place in many natural and technological processes. Important applications of this process are thermal storage systems. In these systems, phase change material (PCM) is stored in a small capsule that is melted by heating peripherally In this melting process, the melting rate is an important factor for the efficiency of the system. In this paper, we propose to use vibration of the heating wall to enhance the melting rate. The effect of this vibrating motion of the heating wail is studied. Unlike in earlier steady analyses we present here a theoretical study of the non-steady heat transfer of the direct contact. It is made clear that the vibrating motion of the heating wall enhances the heat transfer and melting rate.