A New Approach for Discontinuous Thermal Conductivity in One-Dimensional Phase Change Problems

Authors: Zafer İLKEN

Abstract: Phase-change problems involve discontinuities in the thermal conductivities at the phase-change boundary. In attempting to solve this, in methods using a control volume formulation, the problem is detining the thermal conductivities at the controlvolume interfaces appropriately. In this study, a new approximation for the interface conductivities is suggested for one-dimensional phase-change problems, in which they are expressed in terms of the phase-front position. This new approach was tested with Neumann's problem, which revealed that it gives better results than the other approaches, especially in cases where the ratio of solid and liquid thermal conductivities lies in the range of practical values.

Keywords: Phase Change, Enthalpy Method, Thermal Conductivity