Abstract
The phase change heat transfer has been applied to the processes of machines as well as of manufacturing. The cycle in a heat exchanger includes the phase change phenomena of coolant for air conditioning, the solidification in casting process makes use of the characteristics of phase change of metal, and the welding also proceeds with melting and solidification. To predict the phase change processes, the experimental and numerical approaches are available. In the case of numerical analysis, the Enthalpy method is most widely applied to the phase change problem, comparing to the other numerical methods, i.e. the Equivalent Specific Heat method and the Temperature Recovery method. It's because that the Enthalpy method is accurate and straightforward. The Enthalpy method does not include any correction step while the correction of final temperature field is inevitable in the Equivalent Specific Heat method and the Temperature Recovery method. When the temperature field is to be used in the calculation, however, there must be converting process from enthalpy to temperature in the calculation scheme of Enthalpy method. In this study, an improved method for the Equivalent Specific Heat method is introduced whose method dose not include the correction steps and takes temperature as an independent variable so that the converting between enthalpy and temperature does not need any more. The improved method is applied to the solidification process of pure metal to see the differences of conventional and improved methods.