ANALYSIS OF HEAT TRANSFER DURING MELTING OF A PURE METAL FROM AN ISOTHERMAL VERTICAL WALL

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Abstract
A computational methodology is presented for the problem of melting of a pure metal from an isothermal vertical wall. The governing conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy are solved with a control volume-based discretization scheme adapted for irregular geometries. The moving boundary is immobilized by employing the quasi-steady assumption with an algebraically generated nonorthogonal grid. All terms in the governing equations arising from the nonorthogonatity of the computational grid are retained in the solution algorithm. The model is validated by comparison with available experimental data for the effect of natural convection on melting heat transfer in a pure metal system. The influence of Rayleigh number on velocity and temperature fields is investigated, and sample results are presented for overall heat transfer and melting rate. The predictions indicate that buoyancy-induced fluid motion may have a less dominant role in energy transport in the transition to quasi-steady melting in the liquid metal system than in high Prandtl number melting processes studied previously. However, the influence of Prandtl number on natural-convection heat transfer in the quasi-steady melting regime appears to be weak.