Study on the effect of nanoparticle dispersion on the melting of PCM in hemicylindrical cell.

The melting process of nano-enhanced phase change material (NePCM) contained in a horizontal hemicylindrical vessel isothermally heated on straight wall is numerically investigated. A simulation adopts enthalpy-porosity technique and finite volume method to solve the simultaneous governing equations. The behaviour features of melting such as the progress and the shape of melting interface, melt fraction and charging time are studied according to the influence of the concentration of the nanoparticles loading, and the temperature of the hot wall. The results reveal that increasing the nanoparticles loading leads to enhance the effective thermal conductivity, increase the heat transfer exchange within the phase change material, and decrease the melting time. Also, it is found that the effect of the hot wall temperature on the melting process is significant.