Experimental and numerical study of melting of particle-laden materials in a cylinder

The melting of a particle-laden slurry in a cylinder is investigated. The slurry consists of neutrally buoyant ceramic hollow spheres suspended in a paraffin wax. Melt front propagation and heat transfer processes during phase change in this particle-laden material is studied. The numerical analysis employs a particle-diffusive model and the enthalpy method. Experiments are carried out to validate the numerical model. The experimental boundary conditions are adequately represented with a constant and uniform side-wall temperature, a constant and uniform lower-surface temperature, and an adiabatic top wall. Reasonable agreement is obtained between the experiments and numerical predictions. It is found that the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the melt are greatly altered due to the presence of the solid particles and that the particle-diffusive model is insufficient to describe the particle migration during melting.