Numerical research of solid-liquid phase change process in porous media

A method has been developed for analyzing 2-D solid-liquid phase change melting process in the condition of gravity and natural convection. The method solves the phase change problems by the enthalpy method coming from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software (Fluent 6.2). Solid-liquid interface positions, temperature distributions and speed vector distributions are obtained in separately time of the melting process. Numerical results are compared with available experimental and computational results from some references. The comparison verifies that the approach is correct and applicable. On the basis of the method, porous theory solved 2-D solid-liquid phase change melting process in porous media. Numerical results show that porous media has a certain effect on solid-liquid phase change process.