Experimental and numerical investigation of the melting process of aluminum foam/paraffin composite with low porosity

The present article investigates the melting process of aluminum foam/paraffin composite with low porosity by using experimental and numerical methods. Three composites with porosities 67%, 75%, and 84% are compared in terms of temperature variation, interface evolution, and total melting time. The experimental results indicate that the effect of thermal conduction and thermal convection on the melting process is affected greatly by the porosity. In the composite with porosity 84%, the heat flux ratio of convective heat transfer tends to be larger than 20%. Furthermore, the 3 D macro models are also established by using equilibrium model and non-equilibrium model.