抄録
Closed-contact melting of solid phase change material (solid PCM) in a horizontal cylinder under constant heat transfer coefficient was investigated by an experiment and an analysis. Solid PCM of water and tetradecane filled in an acrylic and a copper tube was melted by natural and forced convection. Melting velocity measured by visualized solid liquid boundary increased with time under the constant heat transfer coefficient. This agrees with the analysis. Observation of the solid liquid boundary shows that for case of the melting in the copper cylinder, effect of natural convection in the liquid phase would be negligible, however, effect of natural convection can not be ignored for case of the melting in the acrylic cylinder.
