Numerical and experimental investigations of melting and solidification processes of high melting point PCM in a cylindrical enclosure

In the present work, a computational model is developed to investigate and predict the thermal performance of high melting point phase change material during its melting and solidification processes within a cylindrical enclosure. In this model the phases are assumed to be homogeneous and a source term, S, arises from melting or solidification process is considered as a function of the latent heat of fusion and the liquid phase fraction. The numerical model is verified with a test problem and an experiment is performed to assess the validity of the assumptions of it and an agreement between experimental and computational results is achieved The findings show that utilizing of PCMs of high melting points is a promising technique especially in space applications.