Enhancement of bent transfer in the liquid bath by ultrasound

액상용기에서 초음파에 의한 열전달촉진

The present paper investigated the effect of ultrasonic vibrations on the melting process of a phase-change material (PCM). Furthermore, the present study considered constant heat-flux boundary conditions unlike many of the previous researches, which had adopted constant wall-temperature conditions. Therefore in the study, modified dimensionless numbers such as Stefan and Rayleigh were adopted to represent heat transfer results. The experimental results revealed that ultrasonic vibrations accompanied the effects like agitation, acoustic streaming, cavitation, and oscillating fluid motion, accelerating the melting process as much as 2.5 times, compared with the result of natural melting (i. e., the case without ultrasonic vibration). Such effects are believed to be a prime mechanism in the overall melting process when ultrasonic vibrations were applied. Subsequently, energy could be saved by applying the ultrasonic vibrations to the natural melting In addition, various time-wise dimensionless numbers provided a conclusive evidence of the important role of the ultrasonic vibrations on the melting phenomena of the PCM.