Analysis of thermal protection characteristics of a rectangular cell filled with PCM/air layer

The present paper presents a numerical analysis concerning thermal protection characteristics of a rectangular composite cell filled with a solid-liquid phase change material (PCM) and air layer. Inside the composite cell the PCM layer is separated from air layer by a solid partition of negligible thickness. The buoyancy-induced flows developed in both the air-filled layer and the molten PCM zone inside the PCM layer were modeled as two-dimensional laminar Newtonian fluid flow adhering to the Boussinesq approximation. Meanwhile, two-dimensional conduction heat transfer was accounted for the unmelted solid PCM region. Delineation is made via a parametric simulation of the effects of the pertinent parameters: Ste (Stefan number), Sc (subcooling factor), Ra (Rayleigh number), aspect ratio of composite cell, A, and relative thickness ratio A_p/A_a, on the transient thermal protection performance of the composite cell. Results demonstrate that by means of the latent-heat absorption inside the PCM layer, heat penetration across the composite cell can be greatly retarded over an effective duration until a critical instant until the melting front of PCM reaches the partition wall. Such an effective thermal protection duration is found to be a strong function of Ra, Ste, A_p/A_a, A.