A numerical study on acceleration of melting process under forced convection by using high thermal conductive porous media

A numerical study on melting of an ice block assisted by aluminum metal foam and placed in a channel is performed. The same problem is also solved for a clear ice block without assisting metal foam. The dimensional and dimensionless forms of the governing equations are presented. The continuity, momentum, and energy equations for the entire region are solved to obtain the velocity, pressure, and temperature distributions. The influence of three dimensionless parameters as Reynolds number, Stefan number, and aspect ratio on heat and fluid flow mechanism and total melting period is investigated. It is found that the use of metal foam in the ice block has negligible effect on the heat transfer enhancement in some studied cases. The highest effect of metal foam on melting period is observed when the thermal interaction between the block and flowing fluid is weak. The maximum reduction in the specific dimensionless total melting period is found around 38% because of the metal foam. For the cases with strong thermal interaction between the block and flowing fluid in the channel, the use of metal foam does not have considerable effect on the acceleration of phase change. Due to the limited studies on the solid/liquid phase change under forced convection in a channel, the results of present study can also be used as benchmark solution for validation of future studies.