Melting of a phase change material in a horizontal annulus with discrete heat sources

Phase change materials have found many industrial applications such as cooling of electronic devices and thermal energy storage. This paper investigates numerically the melting process of a phase change material in a two-dimensional horizontal annulus with different arrangements of two discrete heat sources. The sources are positioned on the inner cylinder of the annulus and assumed as constant-temperature boundary conditions. The remaining portion of the inner cylinder wall as well as the outer cylinder wall is considered to be insulated. The emphasis is mainly on the effects of the arrangement of the heat source pair on the fluid flow and heat transfer features. The governing equations are solved on a non-uniform O type mesh using a pressure-based finite volume method with an enthalpy porosity technique to trace the solid and liquid interface. The results are obtained at Ra=104 and presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, melting phase front, liquid fraction and dimensionless heat flux. It is observed that, depending on the arrangement of heat sources, the liquid fraction increases both linearly and non-linearly with time but will slow down at the end of the melting process. It can also be concluded that proper arrangement of discrete heat sources has the great potential in improving the energy storage system. For instance, the arrangement C3 where the heat sources are located on the bottom part of the inner cylinder wall can expedite the melting process as compared to the other arrangements