International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Melting of nano-phase change material inside a porous enclosure

Manar S.M. Al-Jethelah, Syeda Humaira Tasnim, Shohel Mahmud ⇑, Animesh Dutta
School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The melting process of a nano-phase change material (or nano-PCM) in a square enclosure filled with a
Received 20 November 2015 porous medium was investigated numerically and analytically. The dimensionless continuity, Darcy–
Received in revised form 16 June 2016 Brinkman momentum, and energy equations were solved using the finite element method. One vertical
Accepted 20 June 2016
wall of the square enclosure was heated at a constant temperature (Th), while all the other walls were
Available online 8 July 2016
insulated. The numerical results were adopted for a wide range of Rayleigh number
(106 6 Ra 6 5
107 ), Darcy number (108 6 Da 6 100 ), and the volume fraction of nanoparticles
Keywords:
(/ = 0%, 10%, and 20%). The results were expressed in terms of isothermal lines, streamlines, and
Darcy–Brinkman model
Nano-PCM
Nusselt number. In addition, a scale analysis of the governing equations was performed to verify the
Melting process numerical results. A validation was performed between the present study and previously reported results
Scale analysis in the literature; a good agreement was achieved. The numerical results indicated that the melting pro-
Permeability cess is improved by increasing Ra, /, and Da. The scale analysis successfully predicted the behavior of the
meting process of nano-PCM embedded in the porous medium.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Thermal storage is a key component in many engineering appli-
cations. Solar power plants [1] and domestic usage [2] are two
common application examples. In many applications, thermal stor-
age balances between the demand and the supply of energy which
has made the thermal storage an attractive research field for the
last 30 years. The thermal energy may be stored in sensible or
latent forms. The sensible thermal storage has high storing ability;
however, high mass and volume of sensible materials are required
to store a reasonable amount of heat [3]. Latent thermal energy
storage has many attractive features, such as, nearly isothermal
charging and discharging processes besides the low ratio of volume
to energy [4]. These attractive features make the PCM a preferred
option in many engineering applications, such as, energy storage,
air-conditioning, thermal management, medical appliances, and
chemical reactions [5]. However, the low thermal conductivity of
PCMs decreases the heat transfer rate during charging and dis-
charging cycles [6]. Therefore, many improvements have been pro-
posed in the existing literature to increase the thermal
conductivity of PCM. One of the first proposed improvements is
immersing metallic porous medium in a PCM by Kazmierczak
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: maljethe@uoguelph.ca (M.S.M. Al-Jethelah), stasnim@
uoguelph.ca (S.H. Tasnim), smahmud@uoguelph.ca (S. Mahmud), adutta@
uoguelph.ca (A. Dutta).
et al. [7] as reported by Nield and Bejan [8]. The most recent pro-
posed method is adding high thermal conductivity metallic
nanoparticles to PCM [9]. The improvement of PCM performance
was reviewed by researchers in terms of utilizing porous medium
[10] or nanoparticles [11].
Utilization of porous medium is one of the heat transfer enhanc-
ing mechanisms that researchers have studied to overcome the low
thermal conductivity of PCMs. Beckermann and Viskanta [12]
numerically and experimentally investigated melting and solidifi-
cation of gallium by immersing glass beads in a square enclosure.
Their results revealed that during melting and solidification pro-
cesses the interface movement and shape are highly influenced
by natural convection in the liquid portion and conduction in the
solid portion of PCM. Lafdi et al. [13] conducted an experimental
study to measure the temperature field and capture the interface
motion using paraffin PCM and aluminum foams. Lafdi et al. [13]
recommended optimal values for foam porosity and pore size to
enhance the thermal performance as porosity and pore size influ-
ence heat conduction and convection. Both higher porosity and
bigger pore size accelerate reaching the thermal steady state. The
early thermal steady state occurs because of the greater impact
of convection associated with high porosity and larger pore size
foams. Authors also found that the heat conduction dominates in
case of lower porosity foam. Zhao et al. [14] conducted an experi-
mental and numerical study to investigate the heat transfer during
the melting and solidification of paraffin wax embedded within
copper metal foams. The use of porous medium improves the heat

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.06.070
0017-9310/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
774 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787

Nomenclature

b height of the convection dominated liquid region (m) X dimensionless horizontal coordinate
cp specific heat at constant pressure (J/kg K) x horizontal coordinate (m)
D melting front position, m Y dimensionless vertical coordinate
Da Darcy number based on the enclosure size, Da = K/L2 y vertical coordinate (m)
Dab Darcy number based on the height of the convection z the height of the remaining solid portion in the
dominated liquid region, Da = K/b2 enclosure (m)
Fo Fourier number, Fo = kefft/qnfcp,nfL2 = aefft/L2
g gravitational acceleration (m/s2) Greek symbols
h convection heat transfer (W/m2) a thermal diffusivity (m2/s)
hf latent heat of fusion (J/kg) b coefficient of thermal expansion (1/K)
K permeability (m2) db thermal boundary layer thickness in convection zone of
k thermal conductivity (W/(m K)) height b (m)
L enclosure height (m) dT thermal boundary layer thickness (m)
l width of the remaining solid (m), dimensionless melting e Porosity
front position h dimensionless temperature
Nu Nusselt number, defined in Eq. (19) l dynamical viscosity (Pa s)
P dimensionless pressure q density (kg/m3)
p pressure (Pa) r the ratio of the heat capacitances of the porous medium
Pr Prandtl number, Pr = tnf/aeff = lnf/qnfleff and nano-PCM, r = (qcp)eff/(qcp)nf
Q_ total heat transfer rate per unit width (W/m) t kinematic viscosity (m2/s)
Q 00 heat transfer flux rate (W/m2) / volume fraction of nanoparticles
Ra Rayleigh number based on the enclosure size, Ra = g
(qb)nfL3(Th  Tm)/lnfaeff Subscripts
Rab Rayleigh number based on the height of the convection avg average
3
dominated liquid region, Rab ¼ q2 gbnf b ðT h  T m Þ=l2nf cond conduction
Ste Stefan number, Ste ¼ cpnf ðT h  T m Þ=hf nf
conv convection
Ste⁄ modified Stefan number for the porous medium case, f PCM
Ste ¼ Ste=e ¼ cpnf ðT h  T m Þ=ehf nf eff effective nano-PCM properties inside the porous med-
T temperature (K)
ium
t time (s) h hot
U dimensionless volume-averaged velocity of the liquid lat latent
nano-PCM in the X-direction m melting temperature
u volume-averaged velocity of the liquid nano-PCM in the
n nanoparticle
x-direction (m/s) nf nano-PCM
V dimensionless volume-averaged velocity of the liquid s solid porous medium
nano-PCM in the Y-direction
v volume-averaged velocity of the liquid nano-PCM in the
y-direction (m/s)

transfer in the solid phase. The overall heat transfer rate may be
increased 3–10 times by using copper foam. In addition, the solid-
ification of PCM embedded in copper metal foams requires half of
the time of solidification of PCM without metal foams. Py et al. [15]
experimentally and theoretically investigated the influence of a
natural graphite matrix on the thermal performance of paraffin.
The thermal conductivity of the ‘graphite matrix + PCM’ has
significantly improved from 0.24 W/m K (for the pure PCM) to a
4–70 W/m K (for the combination) depending on the paraffin
weight fraction. In addition, higher solidification rate and decreas-
ing thermal storage power stabilization were achieved. Through
their numerical study, Mesalhy et al. [16] found that a low porosity
matrix accelerates the melting process; however, low porosity also
damps the convection currents. Mesalhy et al. [16] concluded that
the utilization of high thermal conductivity and high porosity
matrix significantly improves the melting process of PCM.
The porous medium increases the area-volume ratio, but it
reduces the volume fraction of the utilized PCM. Besides, the
improvement in natural convection heat transfer of a fluid by add-
ing nanoparticles [17,18] has encouraged researchers to investi-
gate the effect of adding nanoparticles on the melting and
solidification of PCM. Arasu and Mujumdar [19] performed numer-
ical simulations of paraffin wax with the addition of metallic
nanoparticles, Al2O3, in a square enclosure. Arasu and Mujumdar
[19] found that the liquid nano-PCM flow and the solid–liquid
interface shape are affected by the thickness of the liquid PCM
layer. Increasing the volume fraction of Al2O3 decreases the melt-
ing rate. Heating the vertical side of the enclosure enhances the
free convection effect thus increasing the melting rate and energy
stored when compared to the heating from below case. The
researchers concluded that the effective thermal conductivity of
the paraffin wax is improved by using smaller volume fractions
of Al2O3. Darzi et al. [20] incorporated Cu nanoparticles in water
to improve the heat transfer throughout the melting process.
Authors indicated significant enhancement in the thermal conduc-
tivity of PCM with nanoparticles compared to pure PCM. Darzi
et al. [20] concluded that the improvement in the thermal conduc-
tivity of nano-PCM and the reduction in the latent heat of fusion
lead to a faster heat transfer rate. Ho and Gao [21] conducted
experiments to investigate the melting of n-octadecane with sus-
pended Al2O3 nanoparticles. Their results revealed that increasing
the mass fraction of nanoparticles suspended in nano-PCM
decreases the natural convection effect in the melted region when
compared to the pure PCM. Hosseini et al. [22] performed a numer-
ical study to investigate the effects of nanoparticle dispersion on
solidification of three mixtures of nanofluids; Cu–water, TiO2–
Water, and Al2O3–water. The authors found that for 0.2% volume
fraction of Cu nanoparticles, a decrease of 16% in solidification time
 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787
is observed for Gr = 106 when compared to the solidification time
at Gr = 105. The dispersion of nanoparticles affected the solidifica-
tion time because of the improvement in the conduction mecha-
nism of solidification. Abdollahzadeh and Esmaeilpour [23]
numerically investigated the impact of the surface waviness and
nanoparticles on the solidification time of Cu–water. For low Gr,
the freezing time increases with increasing the waviness while
for high Gr the waviness decreases the solidification time. The
authors concluded that both the surface waviness and nanoparti-
cles accelerate the solidification process. However, adding
nanoparticles decreases the energy storage/release capacity. Zaba-
legui et al. [24] numerically and experimentally investigated the
impact of adding multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the latent heat
of a PCM. They observed that smaller diameter particles reduce the
PCM latent heat. The experimental study performed by Altohamy
et al. [25] reveals the significant effect of nanoparticles on reducing
the solidification time of Al2O3–water.
The enhancement of phase change processes associated with
the separate use of porous medium and nanoparticles has attracted
researchers to study the effect of the presence of both porous med-
ium and nanoparticles together throughout the phase change pro-
cesses ([26–29]). The first work that investigated the phase change
process of a nano-PCM embedded in a porous medium was per-
formed by Hossain et al. [26]. Their numerical study along with
scale analysis investigation revealed that the existence of porous
medium has more influence than nanoparticles on the melting pro-
cess of a rectangular enclosure heated from the top. Lower porosity
and high volume fraction of nanoparticles accelerate the melting
process. Authors found that more energy is required to melt the
nano-PCM with lower volume fraction nanoparticle inside a higher
porosity porous medium. Tasnim et al. [27] presented a scale anal-
ysis and numerical study of phase change process using Darcy
model for a porous medium filled with nano-PCM in a rectangular
enclosure heated from the side. A reduction in conduction and con-
vection heat transfer was observed when nanoparticles were
added to the base PCM. Alshaer et al. [28] conducted an experi-
mental work to investigate the cooling of electronic devices using
a composite of carbon foam, paraffin wax, and multi-wall carbon
nanotubes. The cooling process is improved by utilizing the com-
posite medium when compared to carbon foam or carbon foam
immersed in paraffin wax only. Alshaer et al. [29] performed a
numerical study to predict the thermal performance of electronic
equipment using a composite of carbon foam, paraffin wax, and
multi wall carbon nanotubes. The influence of the foam porosity
on the cooling process was investigated. They found that the cool-
ing is enhanced with lower porosities (less than 75%) when com-
pared to high porosity (88%).
Based on the literature reviewed so far, the authors are unable to
identify a research work that considered melting of nano-PCM
inside porous medium using more rigorous models (e.g., Darcy–
Brinkman model). This is the motivation for the present study. The
current study utilizes a complete Darcy–Brinkman model for both
numerical modeling and scale analysis. These complete modeling
results will improve our understanding and fundamental knowl-
edge of phase change processes of nano-PCM inside a wide range
of porous media. As a test case, the current numerical study consid-
ers Al2O3 as nanoparticles, water as PCM, and aluminum foam as
porous medium. The nano-PCM within the porous medium is placed
in a square enclosure; one of its vertical walls is heated at a constant
temperature, while the other walls are thermally insulated.
2. Physical model
A two dimensional square enclosure filled with nano-PCM and
porous medium is shown in Fig. 1. The walls of the enclosure are
775
liquid nano-PCM solid nano-PCM
y
porous medium
//////////////////////////////////////////
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
////////////////////////////////////////
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●● L
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
Interface at Tm
v ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●● x
u ///////////////////////////////////////////
D
L
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the problem under consideration.
adiabatic except the left wall which is maintained at a constant
temperature Th. It is assumed that the temperature of the solid
nano-PCM is at Tm which is the melting temperature of the nano-
PCM. The melted nano-PCM is considered to be an incompressible
Newtonian fluid. It is further assumed that the unsteady flow of the
melted nano-PCM inside the enclosure is laminar and no velocity
slip exists between the nanoparticles and the PCM. Also the
nanoparticles and the PCM are considered to be a continuous med-
ium and at locally in thermal equilibrium with the porous medium.
3. Mathematical modeling
3.1. Governing equations
In this work, thermophysical properties are assumed to be con-
stant except the density in the y-momentum equation where
Boussinesq approximation is used to model the buoyancy force
term. The flow of the melted nano-PCM is assumed to be an
unsteady laminar flow.
The model can be described by conservation of mass equation,
Darcy–Brinkman model of momentum equation in porous med-
ium, and energy equations in both liquid and solid regions of the
nano-PCM. These equations are introduced and discussed next.
The continuity equation presented in [30] is applicable for the
current problem of liquid phase of nano-PCM and is given by:
@u @ v
þ ¼0 ð1Þ
@x @y
where u is the volume-averaged velocity of the liquid nano-PCM in
the x direction and v is the volume-averaged velocity of the liquid
nano-PCM in the y direction.
In recent studies, Hossain et al. [26] and Tasnim et al. [27] used
the Darcy equation of porous medium to model the flow field of
liquid nano-PCM. However, the Darcy flow model is suitable for
cases where the order of magnitude of the pore Reynolds number
is smaller than unity [8]. The Darcy momentum model ignores the
solid boundary effect and also fluid inertial and frictional effects.
These neglected effects can have significant influence on the melt-
ing and solidification processes of nano-PCM for a porous medium
having relatively large porosity and permeability. To overcome the
limitations of Darcy model, current work is developed using
Darcy–Brinkman momentum equation for porous medium [30].
776 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787

Using the Darcy–Brinkman model, the momentum equation in The nano-PCM heat capacity (qcp)nf, according to [31], is
the x-direction, according to [30], is
ðqcp Þnf ¼ ð1  /Þðqcp Þf þ /ðqcp Þn : ð7Þ

 !
qnf @u 1 @u @u @p lnf @2u @2u lnf
þ u þv ¼ þ þ  u ð2Þ Part of the Boussinesq term in Eq. (3) can be written, according to
e @t e @x @y @x e @x2 @y2 K [31], as

where qnf is the density of the nano-PCM, e is the porosity of the ðqbÞnf ¼ ð1  /ÞðqbÞf þ /ðqbÞn : ð8Þ
porous medium, t is the time, p is the pressure, lnf is the dynamic
To define the viscosity of the nano-PCM (lnf), the Brinkman model,
viscosity of the nano-PCM, and K is the permeability of the porous
according to [32], is used
medium.
Similarly, the momentum equation in the y-direction, according lf
lnf ¼ : ð9Þ
to [30], is ð1  /Þ2:5

 !
qnf @ v 1 @ v @v @p lnf @2v @2v The Maxwell–Garnetts (MG) model [31] is used to model the ther-
þ u þv ¼ þ þ
e @t e @x @y @y e @x2 @y2 mal conductivity of the nano-PCM (knf) as follows
lnf kn þ 2kf  2/ðkf  kn Þ
 v þ ðqbÞnf gðT  T m Þ ð3Þ knf ¼
kn þ 2kf þ /ðkf  kn Þ
kf ð10Þ
K
where bnf is the coefficient of thermal expansion for the nano-PCM, where kn and kf are thermal conductivities of the nanoparticle and
g is the gravitational acceleration, T is the temperature, and Tm is the the PCM, respectively.
melting temperature of the PCM. Latent heat of fusion hf nf can be defined, according to [33], using
The volume averaged energy equation for the liquid phase of the following equation
nano-PCM immersed in the porous medium, according to [30], is
  " # ðqhf Þnf ¼ ð1  /Þðqhf Þf : ð11Þ
@T @T @T @2T @2T
ðqcp Þeff þ ðqcp Þnf u þv ¼ keff þ : ð4Þ The effective heat capacity of the nano-PCMporous medium combi-
@t @x @y @x2 @y2
nation (qcp)eff, in Eqs. (4) and (5) is defined, according to [26], as
In Eq. (4), (qcp)nf is the heat capacity of the nano-PCM. (qcp)eff and ðqcp Þeff ¼ eðqcp Þnf þ ð1  eÞðqcp Þs ð12Þ
keff are the heat capacity and effective thermal conductivity of the
nano-PCM-porous medium combination, respectively. In order to where subscript s stands for solid matrix of porous medium.The
derive Eq. (4) local thermal equilibrium (LTE) between the porous effective thermal conductivity of the nano-PCM-porous medium
matrix and the nano-PCM is assumed. Using LTE is common in combination keff can be expressed, according to [26], as
enclosures that contain porous medium. The presence of nano par-
keff ¼ eknf þ ð1  eÞks ð13Þ
ticle will increase the thermal conductivity of the nano-PCM and
will reduce the resistance to heat transfer between the liquid where ks is the effective thermal conductivity of the solid porous
nano-PCM and porous medium. Therefore, LTE assumption may medium.
be used to evaluate the temperature of the liquid nano-PCM in
the presence of a porous medium. Moreover, the temperature dif- 3.3. Initial and boundary conditions
ference between the hot wall and the melting is not larger than
5 °C in the present work. At this small range of temperature differ- The governing differential equations are numerically solved
ence local non equilibrium thermal condition between the porous using the following initial and boundary conditions:
matrix and the nano-PCM can be neglected. Furthermore, since
Initial condition : Tðx; y; 0Þ ¼ T m ; u ¼ v ¼ 0
phase change is a very slow process, the temperature difference
@Tðx; 0;tÞ @Tðx;L;tÞ
between the base fluid and the nanoparticles may be neglected. Horizontal walls : ¼ ¼ 0; u ¼ v ¼ 0
However, the authors are curious about this fact and the next step @y @y
of this investigation is to use local non equilibrium thermal condi- Left wall : Tð0; y;tÞ ¼ T h ; u ¼ v ¼ 0
tion and examine the temperatures of PCM and nanoparticles. @TðL;y; tÞ
Finally, the energy equation in the solid phase of nano-PCM is Right wall : ¼ 0; u ¼ v ¼ 0
@x
" # @TðD;y;tÞ @D
@T @2T @2T Interface condition : TðD; y; tÞ ¼ T m ; keff ¼ eqnf hf nf
ðqcp Þeff ¼ keff þ : ð5Þ @x @t
@t @x2 @y2
ð14Þ
In the energy equations, internal heat generation in the solid and where L is the enclosure height, D is the melting front position, and
liquid regions and viscous dissipation effect in the liquid region Tm is the melting temperature of the PCM. For an enclosure filled
are neglected. with a pure PCM and Darcy porous medium, Nield and Bejan [8]
applied similar interface boundary condition. Jany and Bejan [34]
3.2. Thermophysical properties relations also applied similar interface boundary condition to a layer of melt
in a saturated Darcy porous medium. Jany and Bejan [35] applied
This section introduces the thermophysical properties of nano- similar interface boundary condition for PCM inside a non-porous
PCM and nano-PCM-porous medium combination which are used medium. The interface boundary condition, used in Eq. (14), is
in Eqs. (2)–(5). adopted from Nield and Bejan [8] and modified to incorporate the
Density of the nano-PCM (qnf), available in Eqs. (2) and (3), can simultaneous effect of nano-PCM and porous medium.
be expressed, according to [31], as follows
qnf ¼ ð1  /Þqf þ /qn ð6Þ 3.4. Dimensionless form

where / is the volume fraction of the nanoparticles, qf is the density To write the governing equations in the dimensionless forms,
of the PCM, and qn is the density of the nanoparticles. the following dimensionless variables are introduced:
 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787 777

L L aeff 1 1
U¼ u; V¼ v; Fo ¼ t; X ¼ x; Y¼ y; 4. Scale analysis
aeff aeff L2 L L
1 K T  Tm In this study scale analysis is used as a problem-solving method
l¼ D; P¼ p; h¼ in addition to the numerical simulation. The objective of the scale
L lnf aeff Th  Tm
analysis is to use the fundamental knowledge and basic principles
Ste cpnf ðT h  T m Þ K lnf
Ste ¼ ¼ ; Da ¼ ; Pr ¼ ; of fluid mechanics and heat transfer to create order of magnitude
e ehf nf L2 qnf aeff approximations for the quantities of interest [35]. In the current
3
gðqbÞnf L ðT h  T m Þ study, the quantities of interest are melting time, melting regimes,
Ra ¼ ð15Þ and Nusselt number. Existing literatures [27,35] reveal that the
lnf aeff
total melting process without the nanoparticles can be divided into
where X is the dimensionless horizontal coordinate, Y is the dimen- four different regimes depending on the mode of heat transfer. The
sionless vertical coordinate, U and V are the dimensionless volume- four regimes as stated in [35] are; conduction regime, mixed con-
averaged velocity of the liquid nano-PCM in the X- and Y-directions, duction–convection regime, convection regime, and the shrinking
respectively, aeff is the effective thermal diffusivity of the nano- solid regime (see Fig. 2 for details). Scale analysis can be used to
PCM-porous medium combination, Fo is Fourier number, l is the characterize these regimes and identify functional relationships
dimensionless melting front position, P is the dimensionless pres- between important parameters (e.g., Nusselt number and Rayleigh
sure, h is the dimensionless temperature, Ste⁄ is the modified Stefan number) in a particular regime [34,35] in the presence of
number for the porous medium case, and Pr is the Prandtl number, nanoparticles.
Using the parameters, defined in Eq. (15), the governing equa-
tions (Eqs. (2)–(4)) can be written in their dimensionless forms 4.1. Conduction limit
as follows:
Dimensionless momentum equation in the X-direction: Initially, the entire nano-PCM is assumed to be at its solid phase

 ! with a constant temperature (=Tm). At a particular time (i.e., t = 0),
2 2
Da @U Da @U @U @P Da @ U @ U
þ U þV ¼ þ þ U ð16Þ heat is supplied from an external source to the left vertical wall to
ePr @Fo e2 Pr @X @Y @X e @X 2 @Y 2 keep the wall temperature constant (i.e., T = Th > Tm). At this stage,
Dimensionless momentum equation in the Y-direction: the conduction heat transfer is the dominant form of heat transfer.
! Immediately after the heating process starts, the supplied heat


Da @V Da @V @V @P Da @ 2 V @ 2 V Q_ 00 is balanced by the enthalpy absorbed Q_ 00 at the liquid–solid
þ U þV ¼ þ þ  V þ RaDah cond lat
ePr @Fo e2 Pr @X @Y @Y e @X 2 @Y 2 interface, i.e.,
 
ð17Þ  
Q_ 00cond  ¼ Q_ 00lat  : ð23Þ
interface interface
Dimensionless energy equation:
! For per unit area, Eq. (23) can be expressed as


@h @h @h @2h @2h
r þ U þV ¼ þ ð18Þ @T dD
@Fo @X @Y @X 2 @Y 2 keff ¼ eqnf hf nf : ð24Þ
@x dt
 
where r ¼ ðqcp Þeff =ðqcp Þnf is the ratio of the heat capacities of the The scaling parameters for temperature and distance, i.e.,
T  (Th  Tm) and x  D, can be introduced into Eq. (24) to obtain
nano-PCM-porous medium combination and nano-PCM.
Local Nusselt number Nulocal can be defined, according to [36], ðT h  T m Þ D
keff  eqnf hf nf : ð25Þ
as follows D t
Q_ 00 L After re-arranging parameters and simplifying, the thickness of the
Nulocal ¼ ð19Þ
kf ðT h  T m Þ melted portion within the conduction limit can be expressed as

12
where the heat flux rate Q_ 00 can be expressed as Ste 1
 DL
Fo ¼ LðSte
FoÞ2 ð26Þ
@T  e
Q_ 00 ¼ keff  : ð20Þ
@x x¼0 The dimensionless Stefan number Steð¼ cpnf ðT h  T m Þ=hf nf Þ in Eq.
Eq. (20) can be substituted into Eq. (19) and using the dimension- (26) measures the sensible heat of a system relative to its latent
less parameters in Eq. (15), the average Nusselt number Nu can be heat and Ste⁄ is the modified dimensionless Stefan number. The
expressed as parameter Fo is the dimensionless Fourier number (= knft/(qcp)nfL2)
Z
  which measures the heat conducted through a particular substance
1
keff @h  relative to the heat stored inside that substance. The product of Ste⁄
Nu ¼  dY: ð21Þ
0 kf @X X¼0 and Fo yields a dimensionless time group [35]. Eq. (26) reveals that
The boundary and initial conditions, using the dimensionless the thickness of the nano-PCM liquid layer D in the conduction limit
parameters, become is influenced by the height of the square enclosure L and the period
of the melting process represented by the dimensionless time
Initial condition : hðX; Y; 0Þ ¼ 0; U ¼ V ¼ 0: (Ste⁄
Fo). Eq. (26) also implies the effect of the volume fraction
@hðX; 0;FoÞ @hðX; 1; FoÞ of the nanoparticles and the time. The volume fraction of the
Horizontal walls : ¼ ¼ 0; U ¼ V ¼ 0
@Y @Y nanoparticles / is not directly presented in Eq. (26). However, any
Left wall : hð0; Y; FoÞ ¼ 1; U ¼ V ¼ 0 ð22Þ
change in / changes the thermophysical properties (e.g., cpnf ) in
@hð1;Y;FoÞ Ste⁄
Fo. Ste⁄ and Fo increase with an increasing /. With increasing
Right wall : ¼ 0; U ¼ V ¼ 0 Ste⁄
Fo, the thickness of the liquid layer D increases. It can be seen
@X
@hðl; Y; FoÞ 1 @l that the time has considerable influence on Fo and subsequently on
Interface condition : hðl;Y;FoÞ ¼ 0; ¼ Ste⁄
Fo. Eq. (26) states that with increasing Ste⁄
Fo the thickness
@X eSte @Fo
of the liquid layer D increases too. To conclude, the thickness of the
778 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787

L
Davg
b
b
Th Tm
L
D D
z
y, v
x, u l
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 2. The four regimes of melting process in a rectangular enclosure (a) the conduction limit, (b) the transition regime, (c) the convection regime, and (d) shrinking solid
regime [35].

liquid layer D of nano-PCM in the conduction limit increases with Similarly, scale analysis can be performed for the energy equation in
the height of the square enclosure L, the volume fraction of the the liquid nano-PCM region (Eq. (4)). A balance can be established
nanoparticles /, and time Ste⁄
Fo. between the scales of the advection term ( v(Th  Tm)/b) and the
Eq. (19) can be re-written, using the previously defined scaling diffusion term ( knf ðT h  T m Þ=ðqcp Þnf d2b ) to obtain the following
parameters, as scale for velocity in the y-direction
Q_ 00 L keff b
Nulocal 
kf ðT h  T m Þ
: ð27Þ v : ð32Þ
ðqcp Þnf d2b
Similarly, the heat flux term Q_ 00 in Eq. (20) can be expressed in scale In the mixed conduction–convection regime, the thickness of the
analysis form as liquid nano-PCM region is not uniform. As shown in Fig. 2(b), the
ðT h  T m Þ thickness is wider in the upper portion of height b than the lower
Q_ 00  keff : ð28Þ portion of height L  b. The onset of convection in the upper part
D
of the liquid nano-PCM layer results in a relatively wider thickness
By substituting Eq. (28) into Eq. (27), a scale of Nu in the conduction of this layer which is characterized by a thermal boundary layer of
limit can be obtained as thickness db. However, conduction is still the dominating mode of
keff 1
heat transfer in the lower portion of liquid nano-PCM. Now, db
Nu  ðSte
FoÞ 2 : ð29Þ can be obtained by combining Eqs. (31) and (32) as
kf
2 3
It is observed from Eq. (29) that Nu is proportional to the conductiv- 24 1 1 5
ity ratio (keff/kf). Therefore, for a given nano-PCM, better heat trans- d2b b 1
þ ð33Þ
fer rate can be obtained when keff is larger by introducing
eRa2b Rab Dab
nanoparticles and metallic porous medium. Nu is inversely propor- where Rab is the Rayleigh number based on the length scale b
tional to the time group Ste⁄
Fo, hence it reduces as time advances (Rab = g(qb)nfb3(Th  Tm)/lnfanf), and Dab is Darcy number based
in the conduction regime of melting process. on the length scale b (Dab = K/b2).
The thickness of the liquid nano-PCM, D is larger than db except
4.2. The mixed conduction- convection regime at the transition level from conduction to convection where

Shortly after initiating heating at the left wall, the natural con- db  D: ð34Þ
vection of the liquid-nano-PCM becomes stronger in the upper part Now using Eqs. (33) and (34) and knowing that Rab = (b/L) Ra [35] 3

of the melted portion within a height of the convection region b, as and using the relation Dab = (L/b)2Da, an expression of the height
shown in Fig. 2(b). Substituting the following scaling parameters: of the convection region b can be expressed as
x  db and y  b, the following relationship can be established by  1
using the continuity equation (Eq. (1)) 1 1
b  L ðSte
FoÞ þ : ð35Þ
u v eRaðSte
FoÞ RaDa
 : ð30Þ
db b It is observed from Eq. (35) that with increasing the enclosure
By applying the proper scales of parameters in the momentum height L, the time group Ste⁄
Fo, the porosity e, Rayleigh number
equations in the y-direction (Eq. (3)), and for Pr > 1, a balance Ra, and Darcy number Da, the height of the convection region b
can be established between the scales of buoyancy term increases too. In other words, increasing these parameters acceler-
ates the onset of the convection regime. The convection current,
( g(qb)nf(Th  Tm)) and friction term ( v lnf ½ð1=ed2b Þ þ ð1=KÞ) in
developed in this regime, assists heat transfer from the hot wall
Eq. (3) to obtain a scale for the velocity in the y-direction in the to the cold liquid–solid interface. Therefore, accelerating the con-
following form vection regime accelerates the melting process.
gðqbÞnf ðT h  T m Þb
3 In the mixed conduction–convection regime, the total heat
v

2 2
 : ð31Þ transfer is a combination of heat transfer by convection in the
lnf ebd2 þ bK b upper portion and conduction in the lower portion of the melted
b
area and in terms of scales of different parameters
 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787 779

ðT h  T m Þ ðT h  T m Þ The scale of Nu in the convection regime can be re-written as

Q_  keff ðL  bÞ þ keff b ð36Þ
D db
keff L
Nu  : ð42Þ
where Q_ is the total heat transfer rate per unit width of the kf dT
enclosure.
The thickness of the thermal boundary layer dT can be defined by re-
The first term on the right hand side of Eq. (36) represents con-
introducing Eq. (33) as follows
duction; while the second term represents convection. From Eqs.
 
(26) and (33) by substituting Eq. (36) into Eq. (19), the scale of 1 1
d2T  L2 þ : ð43Þ
Nu can be expressed as eRa
1
2 RaDa
"
1 #
keff 1 1 1 1 Afterwards substitute Eq. (43) into Eq. (42) to obtain Nu in convec-
Nu  ðSte
FoÞ2  þ þ ðSte
FoÞ 2 :
kf eRaðSte
FoÞ RaDa tion regime as
ð37Þ  12
keff 1 1
Nu  1
þ : ð44Þ
Eq. (37) reveals that Nu is influenced by the conductivity ratio (keff/ kf eRa2 RaDa
kf) along with other parameters. Therefore for a given PCM and with
In Eq. (44), the conduction term vanishes which is an indication of
a larger keff, the heat transfer rate can be improved. Also Eq. (37)
the significant dominance of convection. In the convection regime,
reveals that Nu in the mixed conduction–convection regime is a
the thickness of the melted portion is not uniform. In the upper part
combination of two terms: the first term is due to the convection,
of the melted portion, the temperature of the liquid nano-PCM is
and the second term is due to the conduction. The convection term
higher than that of the bottom portion. Therefore, the melting rate
is influenced by the time group Ste⁄
Fo, the porosity e, Rayleigh
is faster in the upper part of the melted portion. Consequently, due
number Ra, and Darcy number Da. Nu increases with any increase
to non-uniform thickness, it is appropriate to refer to the melted
in these parameters. While, the conduction term is only influenced
thickness as the average thickness of the nano-PCM liquid layer
by the time group Ste⁄
Fo, which is similar to Eq. (29) in the con-
Davg. The average thickness of the nano-PCM liquid layer can be
duction limit.
expressed as
Z L
4.3. The convection regime 1
Dav g ðtÞ ¼ Dðy; tÞdy: ð45Þ
L 0
When the buoyancy force in the liquid nano-PCM becomes
much greater than the friction force, the convection dominates in At the interface, the total heat transfer rate is
the melted region of nano-PCM inside the porous medium. The dDav g
vertical extend of the convection current, identified in the mixed Q_  qnf hf L : ð46Þ
dt
conduction–convection regime, progresses down with advancing
time and reaches its limit (b ? L). In the convection regime all the Using Eqs. (27) and (44), the total heat transfer rate can be written
melted area is dominated by convection, and Nu can be expressed as
as  12
1 1
Q_  keff þ ðT h  T m Þ: ð47Þ
hL eRa2 1
RaDa
Nu ¼ : ð38Þ
kf
Eqs. (46) and (47) can be combined and after simplification, the
From the energy balance at the interface average thickness of the nano-PCM liquid layer Davg can be written
  as
 
Q_ 00cond  ¼ Q_ 00conv  : ð39Þ
interface interface  12
1 1
Dav g  LðSte
FoÞ þ ð48Þ
Eq. (39) can be further expressed as 1
eRa2 RaDa
@T Eq. (48) predicts an increase in the average thickness of the melted
keff ¼ hDT: ð40Þ
@x portion with increasing enclosure height, Ste⁄
Fo, e, Ra, and Da for
Using the scaling parameters, Eq. (40) can be written as the convection regime.
Table 1 shows a comparison from the existing literature
DT
keff  hDT: ð41Þ between the present scale analysis correlations and the correla-
dT tions developed for nonporous [35] and porous medium [34] cases.

Table 1
Comparison between the present correlations and those for base PCM for the nonporous [35] and porous medium [34] cases.

Regime Conduction limit Mixed conduction–convection regime Convection regime

  1   12
The present correlations nano-PCM filled Nu 
keff 
ðSte
FoÞ
12 1 1
Nu  kefff ðSte
FoÞ 2 eRaðSte1
FoÞ þ RaDa þ ðSte
FoÞ 2
k 1 keff
porous medium
kf Nu  kf
1
1 þ RaDa
1
eRa2
" #
Base PCM without Nu  ðSte
FoÞ2
1
RaðSte
FoÞ2 þ
3
Nu  Ra4
1

porous medium Nu 
ðSte
FoÞ2
1

" #
Base PCM porous Nu  ðSte
FoÞ
12
keff RaDaðSte
FoÞ2 þ
1
Nu 
keff
ðRaDaÞ2
1

medium Nu  k  1
kf
f
ðSte
FoÞ 2
" #
Correlations for base PCM Nu  ðSte
FoÞ
12 
RaðSte
FoÞ þ
3
2 Nu  Ra4
1

without porous medium [35] Nu   12

ðSte
FoÞ
" #
Correlations for base PCM with – RaDaðSte
FoÞ2 þ
3
Nu  ðRaDaÞ2
1

porous medium [34] Nu   1

ðSte
FoÞ 2
780 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787

Nu correlations are chosen because they are derived in most

regimes of the melting process.

5. Numerical analysis

Until this point, the scale analysis technique was applied to the
modeled differential equations to establish the functional relation-
ships between different dimensionless parameters in addition to
melting time, and melting regimes. In this section, governing equa-
tions are solved using numerical technique. A detailed description
of the numerical technique is presented elsewhere [37] and is not
repeated in details in this paper. A two dimensional numerical
study is performed to simulate the melting process of a nano- Khodadadi and Hosseinizadeh [33]
PCM inside a rectangular enclosure filled with porous medium. Brent et al. [38]
Gau and Viskanta [39]
The finite element technique is used. The energy equation in solid Present work
and liquid phases and the laminar momentum equation in the liq-
uid region are used. To model natural convection, the proper vol- Fig. 3. Comparison between the present and previous literatures’ results for the
ume force is applied to the liquid nano-PCM. The dynamic melting process of gallium in a square enclosure.
viscosity is input as a piecewise, continuous second derivative,
function that accounts for the viscosity of the liquid nano-PCM in
the melted region and forced the solid nano-PCM to remain fixed Table 2
Thermophysical properties for the water, Cu, and Al2O3.
by having a solid viscosity of 108. Two dimensional quadrilateral
elements are used to discretize the model. A mesh convergence Property (unit) Water [40] Copper [32] Al2O3 [32]
study is done and as a result 8096 elements are selected giving q (kg/m3) 997.10 8933 3970
an average element size of 1.24
106 m2. The time duration to l (Pa.s) 8.9
104 – –
achieve full melting is a good indicator of time step dependence. cp (J/kg K) 4179 385 765
k (W/m K) 0.6 401 40
The nano-PCM melts after 5.34, 6.27, and 7.18 min with time step
b (1/K) 2.10
104 1.67
105 0.850
105
increments of 0.002, 0.005 and 0.01 s for temperature difference of hf (kJ/kg) 3.35
105 – –
5 °C, respectively. Therefore, the time step is set to 0.005 s. The
scaled residuals selected for convergence is on the order of 105.
The left wall of the enclosure is isothermally heated to initiate
the melting process, while the remaining walls are thermally insu- porous medium. The properties of these materials are listed in
lated. The enclosure is filled with a porous medium saturated with Table 2.
a nano-PCM. The numerical simulations are implemented to iden- Addition of nanoparticles to the PCM changes its thermophysi-
tify the effect of utilizing nanoparticles and porous medium on the cal properties. The new thermophysical properties due to adding
melting process of a nano-PCM. To characterize the melting pro- 10% and 20% volume fraction of copper nanoparticles to water
cess completely, three volume fractions (/ = 0%, 10%, and 20%) of are listed in Table 3.
copper nanoparticles are used. The large volume fraction (/ > 5%)
that considered in the present investigation is primarily of aca- 6. Results and discussion
demic interest. However, authors are not excluding the practical
interest at low volume fraction of nano-particle ranges. The litera- 6.1. Impact of Ra on the melting
ture reviewed earlier showed that primarily, the experimental
works considered low volume fractions (or mass fractions) [21], Fig. 4 shows the effect of Ra on the melting process of nano-PCM
while the higher volume fractions (or mass fractions) are reported inside porous medium for the following selected parameters:
mainly in the theoretical and numerical works [33]. The subse- Da = 105, / = 10%, Ste⁄
Fo = 0.044, and Ra = 106, 107, and
quent numerical study indicates the improvement of melting 5
107. Each plot in Fig. 4(a)–(c) contains temperature contours
process and heat transfer rate at higher volume fractions of and streamlines to show the thermal and flow fields, respectively.
nano-particle. However, preparation of nano-PCM with higher While, plots in Fig. 4(d)–(f) present the corresponding energy
volume fractions of nano-particle is still a challenging task and streamlines. At Ra = 106, the flat vertical interface between the liq-
currently under investigation. uid and the solid phases of the nano-PCM inside the porous med-
To investigate the influence of the porous medium on the melt- ium implies that the conduction is the dominant mode of heat
ing process, a wide range of Darcy number (108 6 Da 6 100 ) is transfer. In the conduction dominated melting regime, free energy
studied at a porosity of 0.98 for Rayleigh number ranges from streamlines [41] originate from the hot wall, pass through the liq-
106 to 5
107, and Stefan number Ste⁄ = 101. uid nano-PCM, and terminate at the liquid–solid interface (Fig. 4
Initially, a validation is presented in Fig. 3 where the solid–liq- (d)). The slightly deformed interface at Ra = 107 indicates the onset
uid interface movement of gallium is tracked with time. The ther- of the convection dominated melting process and heat transfer.
mophysical properties of the gallium are listed in [38]. The gallium The interface deformation occurs due to the non-uniform heat pen-
is placed in a (8.89 cm
6.35 cm) rectangular enclosure. The etration at different locations of the interface. The density of the
enclosure is isothermally heated (38 °C) at the left wall and cooled liquid nano-PCM adjacent to the hot wall decreases and becomes
(29.78 °C) at the right wall while the top and bottom walls are lighter due to the immediate heating from the wall. The buoyancy
thermally insulated. The agreement between the current predic- force assists the relatively lower density liquid nano-PCM to move
tion and the computational [33,38] and experimental [39] results upward along the hot wall. Since the insulated upper surface of the
is fair. enclosure is impermeable, the hot liquid nano-PCM moves towards
The numerical results reported in the subsequent sections are the liquid–solid interface carrying thermal energy with it. This con-
obtained for water as PCM, copper as nanoparticles, and Al2O3 as vection current moves downwards along the liquid–solid interface
 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787 781

Table 3
Thermophysical properties of Cu, water, and nano-PCM for / = 10% and / = 20%.

Property (unit) Cu nanoparticle Water (/ = 0%) Nano-PCM (/ = 10%) Nano-PCM (/ = 20%)

3
q (kg/m ) 8,933 997.10 1790.7 2584.3
l (Pa.s) – 8.9
104 1.158
103 1.56
103
cp (J/kg K) 385 4179 2286.3 1556.1
k (W/m K) 401 0.6 0.8 1.0475
b (1/K) 1.67
105 2.10
104 1.13
104 7.63
105
hf (J/kg) – 3.35
105 3.0
105 2.68
105

Fig. 4. Temperature and flow streamlines (first column) and temperature and energy streamlines (second column) for different values of Ra, at Da = 105, / = 10%, and
Ste⁄
Fo = 0.044 for Ra = 106, Ra = 107, and Ra = 5
107.

while continuously transferring thermal energy to the interface. gradually decreases towards the downward direction along the
Due to the thermal stratification effect, the rate of the heat transfer interface. Therefore, the interface melting rate is higher at the
is maximum close to the top adiabatic wall at the interface and upper parts of the interface than the lower parts. The ongoing
782 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787
non-uniform heat transfer and melting processes result in a
deformed interface shape. However, the nearly vertical interface
shape at the lower part implies the dominance of conduction
(Fig. 4(b)) at that part. The influence of the convection in the upper
part and conduction in the lower part of the melted region in Fig. 4
(b) is the case of a mixed convection–conduction regime. The free
energy streamlines at Ra = 107 (Fig. 4(e)) curve back further
towards the top of the enclosure indicating the appearance of con-
vection at that part of the enclosure. The highly deformed interface
shape implies the dominance of the convection regime at
Ra = 5
107. The appearance of distinct thermal boundary layer
characterizes this regime. At this Ra, stronger convection current
carries the thermal energy to the liquid–solid interface at a higher
rate, and consequently this thermal energy causes faster deforma-
tion of the solid–liquid interface. The convection regime of the
nano-PCM is characterized by free energy streamlines at the top
portion of the enclosure followed by trapped energy streamlines
at the bottom part.
Fig. 5 presents the progression of the melting process as time
advances at different values of Ra throughout the conduction
limit and the convection regime. Combined isotherms and
streamlines are presented for Da = 105, / = 20%, and Ra = 106,
5
106, and 107. Results are presented for four values of dimen-
sionless times: Ste⁄
Fo = 0.00046, 0.00276, 0.07352, and 0.14.
The expected growth of liquid nano-PCM region with advancing
time is clearly observed from Fig. 5. Such melting process can
be characterized by melt fraction (=liquid volume/total volume
of the nano-PCM) and liquid–solid interface shape and location.
At Ste⁄
Fo = 0.00046, the narrow liquid nano-PCM region
bounded between the solid wall and the vertical interface
Fig. 5. Isotherms and streamlines at Da = 105, / = 20% for Ra=106, Ra=5
106, and Ra = 107 at Ste⁄
Fo = 0.00046, Ste⁄
Fo = 0.07352, and Ste⁄
Fo = 0.14.
indicates the dominance of conduction. Small melt fractions
of almost equal magnitude (10.3%) are observed for the
three selected Ra ’s. Melt fractions increase slightly at
Ste⁄
Fo = 0.00276, but conduction still dominates. This trend in
the growth of the melting region with time in the conduction
regime is predicted by Eq. (26). Eq. (26) also confirms the Ra
independency of the thickness of the melting region as observed
in Fig. 5 for Ste⁄
Fo = 0.00046 and 0.00276. The extent of the liq-
uid nano-PCM region is considerably larger at Ste⁄
Fo = 0.07352
and 0.14 for all Ra ’s. Apparent variations in the magnitudes of
melt fractions and deformed interfaces are the clear indicators
of transitions and/or convection regimes inside the cavity. The
dependency of the average interface location Dav on Ra is clearly
visible for Ste⁄
Fo = 0.07352 and 0.14 which can be confirmed
from the scale analysis result presented in Eq. (48).
6.2. Impact of Da on the melting process
The effect of Da on the melting process is presented in Fig. 6. For
a selected dimensionless time Ste⁄
Fo = 0.05, combined plots
of isotherms and streamlines are presented for Ra = 106 and
/ = 20%. Nine cases of Da are selected (Da = 108, 107, 106,
105, 104, 103, 102, 101, and 100) to show the impact of Da
on the characteristic features of the melting process.
As stated earlier in this paper, the dimensionless parameter Da
is the ratio of porous medium permeability to the length scale
squared (i.e., Da = K/L2). The parameter permeability is the
equivalent fluid conductivity of the porous material and approxi-
mately estimates the microscopic pore diameter of the porous
medium [42]. Therefore, for a given size of the enclosed space,
 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787
Fig. 6. Isotherms and streamlines for different values of Da, at Ra = 106, / = 20%, and Ste⁄
Fo = 0.05.
Da is an indirect measure of the microscopic pore size of a porous
medium under investigation. Incorporation of a porous medium
into an enclosure generally introduces a restricted motion to the
liquid nano-PCM. Such restricted motion is caused by the viscous
force between the liquid nano-PCM and the surfaces of the pores
inside the porous medium. The magnitude of the resistance felt
by the liquid nano-PCM motion depends on the pore size. There-
fore, small value of Da indicates a relatively lower pore size which
imposes more restrictions to the liquid nano-PCM motion com-
pared to a large value of Da. Consequently, conduction dominates
the melting process which can be clearly observed from the
vertical liquid–solid interface at Da = 108, 107, and 106. At
higher Da, the size of the pore becomes larger thus reducing the
resistance to the liquid nano-PCM motion inside the pores. Gradual
reduction in the fluid flow resistance with increasing Da enhances
the convective motion of the liquid nano-PCM which can be
observed from the relatively very small deformation of the
interface at Da = 105 and moderate deformation at Da = 104.
The transition regime (i.e., mixed conduction–convection) of melt-
ing is clearly visible at Da = 104. Further increase in Da will assist
the liquid nano-PCM motion inside the porous medium with less
amount of resistance, thus establishing strong convection current
which can be observed from the convection regime of melting at
Da = 103, 102, 101, and 100.
783
The result obtained from the scale analysis, presented in Eq.
(48), predicts an increase in the average thickness of the melted
region with increasing Da. The validity of this prediction can be
observed by comparing the results in Fig. 6 with the scale analysis
result. It is observed from Eq. (48) that for a given Ste⁄
Fo the
average thickness of the melted region Davg depends on Ra1/2
and (RaDa)1. The term RaDa is the Darcy modified Rayleigh num-
ber [34]. In the limits of small Da (i.e., Da ? 0) and large Da
(Da ? 1) one can recover the expressions of Davg, presented in
the literature using scale analysis, for Darcy porous medium [34]
and non-porous medium [35], respectively.
6.3. Impact of / on the melting process
The discussion presented in Section 6.2 is elaborated further by
showing the influence of the nanoparticle volume fraction / on the
melting process of nano-PCM inside the enclosed space. Results are
presented in Fig. 7 for the three selected values of / (=0%, 10%, and
20%) and Da (=107, 104, and 101), while Ra is kept constant
(=106). It should be noted that the parameter / does not appear
directly in the expressions derived in Sections 4.1–4.3 using scale
analysis. Instead, / appears inside the dimensionless numbers
(i.e., Ste⁄, Fo, Ra) through its appearance in the thermophysical
properties relationships as provided in Eqs. (6)–(13). The
784 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787

Fig. 7. Temperature and streamlines at Ra = 106 for different values of u (0% at Ste⁄
Fo = 0.0374, u = 10% at Ste⁄
Fo = 0.045, and u = 20% at Ste⁄
Fo = 0.0533) and Da(107,
104, and 101).

magnitudes of the thermophysical properties increase with 30

increasing /. Therefore, any change in / influences the melting
Ra=105 (Current Prediction)
process as can be observed from Fig. 7. The three Da ’s, selected
Ra=106 (Current Prediction)
in Fig. 7, fairly cover conduction, transition, and convection
25 Ra=105 (Jany and Bejan [35])
regimes of melting for the given Ra. The improvement of the 6
Ra=10 (Jany and Bejan [35])
melting process with higher values of / is clearly visible from φ=0.0 %
Fig. 7. At Da = 107, the melting process for all three / ’s is
Da
dominated by conduction. Slight improvement in the melt frac- 20
tions at / = 10 and / = 20 are observed over the base case (/ = 0).
Such improvement in the melting process is due to the increase
in the thermal conductivity of nano-PCM as / increases. A consid-
Nu

15
erable improvement in the melting process is observed at high
Da (=101) where convection dominates the melting process
significantly.
10

6.4. Average Nusselt number

Average Nusselt number is calculated using Eq. (21), and its 5

variation is reported in Figs. 8–11 as a function of Ste⁄
Fo. Ini-
tially, for a special case of a non-porous medium (Da ? 1) filled
with base PCM (/ = 0), Nu is plotted in Fig. 8 for Ra = 105 and 106 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
and compared with the results reported by Jany and Bejan [35].
Ste Fo
A good agreement is observed between the present prediction
and the result obtained by Jany and Bejan [35] for the selected Fig. 8. Comparison between percent and Jany and Bejan’s [35] for Nu as a function
Ra ’s. of Ste
Fo for different Ra.
 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787 785

40 60
6 -2 * -1
Ra=10 , Da=10 ,Ste =10
35
50 φ=0%
φ=10%
30 φ=20%
40
25

30

Nu
Nu

20

15
Da=10-5,Ste*=10-1, φ=20% 20
7
10 Ra=5*10
Ra=107
Ra=5*106 10
5
Ra=106

0 0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0 0.005 *
0.01 0.015
*
Ste Fo Ste Fo

Fig. 9. Nu as a function of Ste⁄
Fo for different values of Ra at Da = 105, Ste⁄=101, Fig. 11. Nu as a function of Ste⁄
Fo for different volume fractions u at Ra = 106
and / = 20%. Ste⁄=101, and Da = 102.

observed at higher values of Ste⁄
Fo where convection dominates

60 the melting process. Heat transfer rate, as well as, Nu is higher at
larger Ra. The scaling relationship between Nu and Ra as obtained
in Eq. (44) for convection regime also confirms such trend in
50 Fig. 9.
The influence of Da on Nu is revealed in Fig. 10 where Nu is plot-
Ra=10 , Ste =10 , φ=10% ted as a function of Ste⁄
Fo for three cases of Da (=103, 105,
7 * -1

107) at Ra = 107 and / = 10%. As observed in Figs. 6 and 7, the ther-

40 mal fields inside the enclosure show conduction like pattern at
Da=10-3
Da=10-5 lower Da ’s. Therefore, Nu decreases with increasing Ste⁄
Fo at
Da=10
-7 Da = 107 and 105. However, at Da = 103, the effect of transition
Nu

30 and convection on Nu variation can clearly be observed from

Fig. 10. At Da = 103, Nu drops rapidly at the beginning of the melt-
ing process (conduction regime) and reaches a minimum value. For
a small time interval, Nu increases at a faster rate (transition
20
regime). Beyond this point, a slower increase in Nu with Ste⁄
Fo
is observed (convection regime).
The influence of / on Nu versus Ste⁄
Fo is revealed in Fig. 11 at
10 Ra = 106 and Da = 102. Adding metallic nanoparticles improves
the thermal conductivity of the base PCM as stated in [11] and
shown in Table 3. The improved thermal conductivity of the
nano-PCM enhances the heat transfer rate which increases Nu.
0
0 0.005 *
0.01 0.015 Increasing Nu after adding nanoparticles to base PCM is predicted
Ste Fo in Eqs. (29), (37), and (44) in the scale analysis section.
Fig. 10. Nu as a function of Ste⁄
Fo for different values of Da at = 107, Ste⁄=101,
and u = 10 %.
6.5. Impact of e on the melting process

The impact of the porosity on the melting of nano-PCM is

Fig. 9 shows the effect of Ra on Nu during the melting process of
nano-PCM (/ = 20%) inside a porous medium (Da = 105). At the
beginning of the melting process, conduction dominates and Nu
drops rapidly as time advances. The variation in Nu is independent
of Ra at the earlier stage of melting process which can be confirmed
by the scaling relationship (Eq. (29)) developed previously for the
conduction regime. However, the difference in Nu can be clearly
presented in Fig. 12 for Ra = 6.7
105, Da = 0.25, / = 5%,
Ste⁄
Fo = 7.7, and four different values of e (0.7, 0.8, 0.9, and 1.0
(Da ? 1)) in the form of temperature contours and streamlines.
Fig. 12 reveals that increasing the porosity strengthens the
convective motion of the liquid nano-PCM inside the cavity. The
liquid–solid interface moves slightly to the right with increasing
porosity of the porous medium.
786 M.S.M. Al-Jethelah et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 102 (2016) 773–787
Fig. 12. Temperature and streamlines at = 6.7
105, Da = 0.25, u = 5%, Ste⁄
Fo = 7.7 for different values of e (a) 0.7, (b) 0.8, (c) 0.9, and (d) 1.0.
7. Conclusions
The influence of utilizing metallic nanoparticles and porous
medium on the melting of PCM is investigated in this work.
Numerical results are obtained for a square enclosure filled with
porous medium saturated with nano-PCM. The left vertical wall
of the enclosure is isothermally heated while the other walls are
adiabatic. The finite element method is used to solve the
non-dimensional governing equations for non-Darcian flow
(Darcy–Brinkman model). The melting process for a wide range
of non-dimensional parameters (Ra, Da, and /) for Ste⁄ = 101
and e = 0.98 is investigated. A reasonable validation is achieved
with previous works. The results clarify how the melting process
is affected by Ra, Da, and /. Ra increases the convection effect lead-
ing to a faster melting rate. Further, the melting rate is improved
with increasing Da. At lower Da values, the porous medium
restricts the convection currents. Therefore, a reduction in Nu is
observed with decreasing Da since the convection effect is reduced.
Adding nanoparticles to base PCM improves the thermal conduc-
tivity of the PCM and consequently improves the melting process.
Also, adding nanoparticles increases the viscosity of the nano-PCM
compared with the base PCM. However, the strong natural convec-
tion currents cannot be restricted by the increased viscosity. The
energy streamlines show that when conduction is the dominant
mode of heat transfer, the transferred heat from the left hot wall
only melts the solid nano-PCM. While in the convection regime,
the transferred heat both heats up the liquid nano-PCM and melts
the remaining of the solid nano-PCM. The scale analysis has been
implemented successfully to predict the melting behavior. The
numerical results show good agreement with the scale analysis
results.
Acknowledgement
The first author acknowledges the support of the Ministry of
Higher Education and Scientific Research of Iraq through a
scholarship.
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