Effect of surface heat exchange on phase change materials melting with thermocapillary flow in microgravity

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical analysis of the melting dynamics of n-octadecane in microgravity. The phase change material (PCM) is held in a rectangular container of aspect ratio Γ=L/H=1.5, and the upper boundary is open to a layer of air, which both exchanges heat with the PCM and generates thermocapillary convection in the liquid phase via the Marangoni effect. This study extends the analysis conducted by Martinez et al. [“Effect of surface heat exchange on phase change materials melting with thermocapillary flow in microgravity,” Phys. Fluids 33, 083611 (2021)] in which the air temperature was assumed to vary linearly between the temperatures applied at the lateral walls. Two different scenarios are analyzed here. In the first case, the air temperature is assumed to be homogeneous and equal to the mean value of the temperatures applied at the lateral walls throughout the melting process. In the second case, the air temperature is similarly taken to be constant but with a value of 23 °C, which is representative of a laboratory environment, including many microgravity platforms. The investigation reveals the effect of key dimensionless parameters, including the Marangoni number (Ma), which quantifies the heat transport due to the thermocapillary flow, and the Biot number (Bi), which characterizes the heat exchanged across the PCM/air interface. In contrast to previous analyses of pattern selection, only oscillatory standing (pulsating) waves are observed under these boundary conditions. The results in each case are presented via stability maps in terms of Bi and Ma.