Abstract
This study is concerned with anti-precipitation experiments to extend the life cycle of PCM by adding Celite, and also to determine melting heat transfer characteristics experiment of PCM in a PCM cylindrical heat exchanger with six fins. Experimental results are compared with theory to investigate the appropriateness of the unsteadystate two-dimensional heat conduction equation, and the effects of fluid inlet temperature and flowrate on the total melting time of PCM are investigated. Experimental results show that the optimum PCM mixture is 70.5 weight percent of Glauber''s salt and 0.25 weight percent of Celite as thickener, and they are within 5 % agreement with the enthalpy model. It is confirmed that the heat transmission enthalpy model is appropriate for analysis of the melting heat transfer characteristics of PCM. The total melting Fourier number has the following relationships with respect to the Biot number and Stefan number.
(NFo)m=0.0551(NBI)-0.343(NSTE)-0.733
