A two-temperature model for the analysis of thawing heat transfer of ice in aluminium foams

Abstract

Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Turkey, 19-21 July, 2010.

This study presents numerical results for ice thawing heat transfer in high porosity aluminum foams. A two-temperature model is used due to the big difference in thermal diffusivities between aluminum foams and ice/water. A general momentum equation which includes the Brinkman­-Forchheimer extension to Darcy flow is employed when ice thawing. Apparent heat capacity method is used to simulate phase change heat transfer of ice thawing process in aluminum foams. The effect of aluminum foam's porosity in thawing process is studied. The simulation results shows that thawing time of ice filled with aluminum foams is greatly shorter than that without aluminum foams, and thawing time becomes longer with the increasing of aluminum foams porosity.