Heat Transfer by Natural Convection in a Square Enclosure Containing PCM Suspensions

Research on using phase change material (PCM) suspension to improve the heat transfer and energy storage capabilities of thermal systems is booming; however, there are limited studies application PCM in transient natural convection. In this paper, implicit finite difference method was used numerically investigate steady-state convection a square enclosure containing suspension. The following parameters were included simulation: aspect ratio physical model = 1, buoyancies caused by temperature concentration gradients Raleigh number (RaT) 103–105, Stefan (Ste) 0.005–0.1, subcooling factor (Sb) 0–1.0, initial mass fraction (or concentration) particles (ci) 0–0.1. results showed that use can effectively enhance For example, when RaT 103, Ste 0.01, ci 0.1, Sb rate inside be improved 70% compared with pure water. With increasing Sb, Nusselt nonlinearly, resulting local optimal value.