Abstract
A numerical method for the melting process of a solid within a rectangular cross section, surrounded by a vertical heat transfer surface and horizontal fins, was proposed and confirmed by experiments. In the numerical method,the direct contact melting between the solid bottom and the horizontal fin surface was considered besides the melting over the solid due to a natural convection flow in the liquid phase. Transient melting processes were shown, where the solid phase melted rotating counter-clockwise due to the melting rate distribution by the temperature distribution over the fin. The numerical results agreed quite well with experimental results using N-octadecane.
