Numerical modelling of melting and settling of an encapsulated PCM using variable viscosity

Thermal energy storage units using macro-encapsulated PCM in industrial and residential applications are contemporary due to better efficiency during charging and discharging. This article focuses on numerical modelling of the melting process in a macro-encapsulated PCM. Accounting the non-linear enthalpy–temperature relation and ramping down the velocity in solid phase is therefore fundamental. In the present article the variable viscosity method is implemented to ramp down the solid velocity and allow settling of the solid phase. This complete numerical model of melting and settling of PCM in a capsule is implemented in OpenFOAM. The numerical results for different solid viscosities are validated with experiments and show good agreement. The influence of the solid viscosity value and the pressure–velocity convergence is studied. It is observed that the pressure–velocity convergence only plays a greater role in the case where the computation of the exact solid velocity is required.