1990 Volume 7 Issue 2 Pages 131-138
The solidification process of a heterogeneous composite material which consists of coiled conductive solids and water is experimentally examined along with the numerical calculation by the model proposed by the authors. Several parameters such as the volume ratio of the conductive solids (Vd), the outer diameter (Dc) of the coil and the wire diameter(D) are varied in the study.
Consequently, it was found that the solidification rate was promoted by increasing Vd, and in the case of constant Vd the rate became larger with increasing Dc and with decreasing D. It was also found through the numerical calculation that the solidification rate was considerably promoted by adding a little amount of conductive solids when the thermal conductivity ratio (k) of the conductive solid to the phase-change material was higher than 50. Comparing the experimental and the numerical results, the relation between the solidification rate and the above parameters showed a similar qualitative trend each other.
