Heat Transfer Enhancement in Direct Contact Melting Process

In direct contact melting, one of the factors that affect the heat transfer is the size of the heat transfer surface. This means that the shorter the path through which the melted liquid between the heat transfer surface and the solid of PCM (Phase Change Material) is rejected outside, the thinner the melted film, which decreases the thermal resistance between the source and PCM. In this study, how the heat transfer can be promoted by machining slots on the disk-type heat transfer surface and dividing it into several sector-shaped sections was investigated. Experiments were performed changing the number of splits and the width of slots under different surface temperatures and pressures. Numerical analysis shows a good agreement with the experiments. Summarizing these results, the enhancement of heat transfer can apparently be achieved according to the number of splits.