A new lattice Boltzmann model for solid-liquid phase change

The solid-liquid phase change problems were solved by the lattice Boltzmann method in this paper. By modifying the equilibrium distribution function for the temperature, a new approach was developed to treat the latent-heat source term. As compared with the previous work, the approach developed in this paper could avoid iteration steps or solving a group of linear equations, which guaranteed this approach's high efficiency. The phase interface was traced by updating the total enthalpy, and the moving interface was treated by the immersed moving boundary scheme proposed by Noble and Torczynski for simulation of particulate suspensions. The approach was firstly validated by the problem of conduction-induced melting in a semi-infinite space, and good agreement with the analytical result was obtained. Then it was used to simulate melting problems coupled with natural convection, which demonstrated that the approach could produce consistent results as compared with other numerical method. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.