https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60207-7
Regular Article
Enhancement of heat transfer rate on phase change materials with thermocapillary flows
1 Department of Applied Mathematics to the Aerospace Engineering, School of Aerospace Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Plaza Cardenal Cisneros 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain
2 Instituto de Ciencias Matemáticas, CSIC-UAM-UC3M-UCM, C/ Nicolás Cabrera 15, Campus Cantoblanco UAM, 28049, Madrid, Spain
a e-mail: santiago.madruga@upm.es
Received: 30 June 2016
Revised: 29 July 2016
Published online: 2 May 2017
We carry out simulations of the melting process on the phase change material n-octadecane in squared geometries in the presence of natural convection and including thermocapillary effects. We show how the introduction of thermocapillary effects enhances the heat transfer rate, being the effect especially relevant for small Bond numbers. Thus induction of Marangoni flows results in a useful mechanism to enhance the typical slow heat transfer rate of paraffin waxes in applications of energy storage or passive control management.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2017
