Thermal transport in phase change materials embedded in metal foam: evaluation on inclination configuration

Melting features of phase change materials (PCM) in metal foams with distinctive pore parameters were numerically studied. Metal foams infiltrated by PCM were filled in an inclined rectangle enclosure. The effect of enclosure inclination upon melting behaviors was intensively analyzed by means of melting time for different melting fractions, temperature field and uniformity. Numerical models with tilted configuration were built and verified by experimental results regarding both melting interface evolution and temperature data. Satisfactory agreement was found for both two parameters between the two methods. The analysis on the plenty of results demonstrated that the time required for full melting increased significantly with porosity for metal foam regardless of inclination angles. However, the complete melting time was less affected by the variation in pore density. Maximal difference in the complete melting time under the four inclination angles was within 6.27% (porosity: 0.98; pore density: 10 PPI). This revealed that the inclination had limited influence on the complete melting time for PCM embedded in metal foams with various kinds of pore parameters.