Storage Tank Containing PCM — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project simulates the thermal performance of phase change materials (PCMs) within a storage tank using ANSYS Fluent, with solid–liquid phase change as the central theme. PCMs store and release thermal energy by melting and solidifying, and capturing that transition is the core of the study. Here the PCMs take the form of spheres arranged inside a vertical cylindrical storage tank. Hot water enters through an inlet pipe at the top of the tank at 0.1 m/s and 343 K, flows through the interior space around the spheres, and exits from the upper part of the tank. As the warm water transfers heat to the spheres, the PCM melts — and because this behavior is governed by the phase change between solid and liquid states, the Solidification and Melting model is used. As the opening project of the Solidification & Melting: Beginner CFD Training Package, it introduces the phase-change model on a baseline thermal-storage tank, establishing the foundation the enhancement and applied cases build on.MethodologyThe process is inherently time-dependent, so a transient solver is used over a total simulation time of 100 s with a time-step size of 1 s. The study is carried out across several configurations to isolate the factors that govern melting: two PCM materials (paraffin and SAT-G), two sphere radii (4 cm and 5 cm), and two melting temperatures (333.15 K and 332 K), tracking how the liquid mass fraction evolves with the spheres' size, the melting temperature, and the material itself. The geometry is three-dimensional and was created in Design Modeler, then meshed in ANSYS Meshing with an unstructured grid of 757,886 elements. The heart of the methodology is the Solidification and Melting model, which is specifically formulated for the phase change between solid and liquid states; it tracks the advancing melt front through the liquid fraction in each cell rather than meshing a moving interface explicitly. The two materials, paraffin and SAT-G, are defined in Fluent through their respective thermophysical properties so that each melts according to its own characteristics.AnalysisAfter solving, the simulation yields two- and three-dimensional contours of pressure, temperature, velocity, and the liquid and solid mass fractions at the final instant of the process, together with a graph of the PCM liquid mass fraction over time. The results show that the longer the heating continues, the greater the fraction of PCM that melts; as the material absorbs heat and melts, the tank temperature rises, and the regions of higher temperature correspond to regions of lower pressure. Comparing the configurations reveals how material choice, sphere size, and melting point together determine how quickly and completely the storage medium charges with heat. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a transient Solidification and Melting simulation, define multiple PCM materials through their thermophysical properties, run a comparative study across geometry and melting-point variations, and interpret the liquid-fraction and temperature results that quantify PCM melting in a thermal storage tank.

Phase Change Material in a Glass-Coated Circular Chamber — ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation TutorialThis project simulates the thermal behavior of a phase change material (PCM) contained within a glass-coated circular chamber using ANSYS Fluent. PCMs are organic or inorganic substances capable of storing and releasing large amounts of latent thermal energy during phase transitions. As a PCM melts from solid to liquid, it absorbs heat from its surroundings; when it solidifies back from liquid to solid, it releases that stored heat back into the environment. Since different PCMs have different melting and freezing points, they are widely used in heating and cooling applications—for example, absorbing ambient heat during the day as latent heat through melting, then releasing it back at night as the material cools and resolidifies.In this model, the PCM is evenly distributed inside the chamber, which is surrounded by a glass coating held at a constant temperature of 338.15 K, providing the heat input to the PCM.Geometry and MeshThe 2-D geometry was created in Design Modeler, representing a circular chamber with an outer radius of 0.0335 m and an inner radius of 0.032 m. The model was meshed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured mesh, totaling 4,797 elements.MethodologySince the PCM undergoes a solid-liquid phase transition, the Solidification and Melting model is used to capture this behavior, with the PCM initialized at 332.15 K. This model requires defining the solidus temperature (the upper limit at which the material remains fully solid), the liquidus temperature (the lower limit at which the material becomes fully liquid), and the latent heat of fusion of the pure substance. The simulation is run as a transient case over a total duration of 250 minutes (15,000 s), using a time step of 600 s.ResultsContours of liquid mass fraction and temperature were extracted at 40-minute intervals throughout the simulation. A plot of liquid mass fraction versus time was also generated, showing that the liquid fraction increases progressively over time as the corresponding solid fraction decreases.

DescriptionOne of the drawbacks of gasoline fuel is that its temperature drops during cold seasons or in cold locations. As the gasoline cools, sediments and gummy deposits form first; then, as the temperature continues to fall, the heavier hydrocarbon molecules begin to freeze and solidify. To prevent gasoline from freezing, the fuel temperature in the storage tank must be raised. One effective way to do this is to circulate a hot fluid through pipes inside the tank. Helical (spiral) tubes are particularly attractive in space-constrained situations, since they provide greater heat transfer within a given volume.The 3D geometry was created in Design Modeler. The model consists of two main parts: the fuel tank and an internal spiral tube carrying the hot water flow. Meshing was performed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured grid, with a total of 511,821 cells.MethodologyThis project simulates a gasoline fuel tank containing a single-pass spiral tube that runs through the tank. The inner tube carries water at a temperature higher than that of the gasoline, transferring heat to the fuel and thereby raising its temperature to prevent freezing inside the tank. To capture the phase change of the gasoline, the Solidification and Melting module is used to model the phase change material (PCM). The simulation is transient.ConclusionThe greatest degree of melting occurs in the region immediately surrounding the helical tube, where the hot water delivers the most heat. As the heating process continues, the liquid mass fraction steadily increases throughout the tank. The study was conducted over a limited time period, and the results presented here correspond to the end of the simulation.

Phase Change Material (PCM) in a Finned Tube — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project presents a CFD analysis of thermal energy storage using Erythritol phase change material (PCM) in a three-layer tube heat exchanger with copper fins. PCMs store and release thermal energy through latent heat — absorbing heat as they melt from solid to liquid and releasing it as they solidify — which makes them well suited to applications such as capturing solar energy during the day and releasing it at night. This simulation investigates the phase-transition dynamics and heat-transfer mechanisms of the PCM over an extended charging period. Within the Solidification & Melting: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project applies the phase-change model to a finned tube, showing how enhanced surfaces overcome the low thermal conductivity that limits PCMs.MethodologyThe system is a three-layer tube heat exchanger with enhanced surfaces: copper tubes and fins for superior thermal conductivity, Erythritol as the PCM in the storage layer, and liquid silicone as the heat-transfer fluid circulating through the inner tube. The domain — inner-tube flow path, copper tube walls, fins, and PCM region — is meshed with a hybrid structured/unstructured grid of 107,718 elements, with coupled wall conditions between the different materials. The Solidification and Melting module handles the phase transition, run as an extended 12,000-second transient analysis to capture the complete phase dynamics. The Erythritol PCM is defined through its solidus and liquidus temperatures, latent heat of fusion, density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity, while the copper tubes and fins carry high thermal conductivity. The silicone heat-transfer fluid enters at 343.15 K and 1 m/s, the outer walls are adiabatic (zero heat flux), and the inner walls are automatically coupled thermal interfaces.AnalysisPost-processing visualizes the temperature distribution through the PCM, tracks the progression of the solid-liquid phase front over time, and quantifies the liquid-fraction development as the PCM melts, along with the heat-transfer pathways — conduction through the fins and convection in the liquid regions. From these results you can evaluate the energy-storage capacity absorbed as latent heat, the transient response during charging, the effectiveness of the fins in enhancing heat transfer, and how heat penetrates from the tube surface into the PCM volume — yielding practical design guidance on fin geometry and spacing, flow rate, and inlet temperature. The results highlight how copper fins accelerate the charging process and overcome the inherent thermal-conductivity limitation of PCMs. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up an extended transient Solidification and Melting simulation with coupled solid–fluid–PCM zones, define PCM and fin material properties, and interpret the phase-front, liquid-fraction, and temperature results that characterize a finned PCM heat exchanger.Note: since your list now has both #1 (finned tube, described here as a three-layer tube exchanger) and #7 (shell-and-tube finned heat exchanger), just keep an eye that those two stay clearly differentiated when you write #7 — different geometry framing so they don't read as duplicates.

PCM Melting Rate Enhancement via Internal Fin and Nanoparticles — CFD Simulation in ANSYS FluentIntroductionThis project simulates the melting behavior of a phase change material (PCM) inside a two-dimensional cavity enhanced with an internal fin and dispersed nanoparticles, based on the methodology presented in a reference study on enhancing PCM melting rate through internal fins and nanoparticles. The simulation investigates how the combined effect of a conductive fin and CuO nanoparticle dispersion within paraffin wax accelerates the melting process compared to a plain PCM cavity.Geometry and MeshThe cavity geometry, with a width of W = 20 mm and filled with paraffin wax, was created in Design Modeler. The domain was meshed in ANSYS Meshing, generating approximately 10,000 structured cells.MethodologyGravitational acceleration was included in the simulation to capture buoyancy-driven natural convection effects during melting. Since several thermophysical properties of the PCM in the reference study were originally defined through user-defined functions, these properties were instead extracted at key reference points and represented using a polynomial linear model. The material properties used correspond to a mixture of paraffin wax and CuO nanoparticles. The left wall and the internal fin were maintained at a constant temperature of 350 K, while the right wall was held at 300 K, with all remaining walls treated as insulated. The case examined corresponds to a fin-to-cavity width ratio (w/W) of 0.5.Results and ConclusionAfter 375 seconds of simulation time, results show that heat is progressively transferred from the left wall toward the right wall due to the imposed temperature gradient, with the PCM undergoing a phase change as local temperatures reach the melting point. By the end of the simulation, 35.65% of the PCM had melted, illustrating the combined influence of the internal fin and nanoparticle enhancement on accelerating the melting process within the cavity.

Sandwiched PCM CFD SimulationDescriptionIn this project, a phase change material (PCM) sandwiched between two concentric cylindrical tubes is simulated, and the results are investigated using ANSYS Fluent software. The problem is carried out and investigated through CFD analysis.The three-dimensional geometry of this project is produced using Design Modeler software. The length and width of the computational domain are 50 cm, and its height is 300 cm. The meshing is carried out using ANSYS Meshing software. The mesh type is structured, and the number of elements is 360,000.MethodologyIn this project, the phase change material (PCM) sandwiched between two concentric cylindrical tubes is simulated using ANSYS Fluent software. The PCM is trapped between two cylindrical walls, with the inner wall held at a high temperature.These materials are able to store and release thermal energy, making them useful for energy storage and discharge applications. The PCM properties are defined as a function of temperature. In addition, the temperature of the heated wall varies with the distance from the inlet boundary, which produces a non-uniform melting profile. The RNG k-epsilon model is used to solve the turbulent fluid flow equations.ConclusionAfter the solution, contours of velocity, temperature, and liquid volume fraction are obtained. For example, the liquid volume fraction contour shows that the PCM near the hot wall changes phase as its temperature rises, transforming from solid to liquid and forming a liquid layer. The thickness of this layer gradually increases over time.

DescriptionThis project uses ANSYS Fluent to simulate solidification and melting of a phase change material (PCM) around a corrugated tube, applying the solidification & melting module to model latent heat storage behavior. PCMs absorb latent heat during melting (cooling their surroundings) and release it during solidification (heating their surroundings), making them valuable for thermal energy storage applications. This simulation uses paraffin as the PCM, examining how its phase evolves in response to heat transfer from a wavy-surfaced inner tube.MethodologyThe paraffin PCM is defined with a density of 150 kg/m³, specific heat capacity of 2000 J/kg·K, thermal conductivity of 0.2 W/m·K, and viscosity of 0.03499 kg/m·s. The geometry is built in SpaceClaim and meshed in ANSYS Meshing using a structured grid of 135,939 cells. The solidification and melting model defines the phase change, with a solidus temperature of 350.15 K, liquidus temperature of 358.15 K, and latent heat of fusion of 176,000 J/kg. A transient solver is used with a 1 s time step to capture the time-dependent phase change process.ConclusionResults, reported at 7000 s of simulation time, include contours of temperature, temperature gradient, pressure, and liquid fraction. The PCM's behavior tracks its temperature response: as it absorbs heat from the inner tube, it transitions from solid to liquid in the regions where temperature rises, consistent with the expected melting behavior driven by latent heat absorption.

DescriptionThis project presents a CFD investigation of thermal energy storage using a phase change material (PCM) within a finned shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The study captures the complex transient behavior of the PCM melting process, demonstrating the effectiveness of latent-heat storage for thermal-management applications.The appeal of a PCM lies in its phase transition: it stores energy by absorbing latent heat as it melts from solid to liquid, and releases that energy as it solidifies from liquid back to solid. This makes PCMs valuable for thermal regulation in both heating and cooling systems — for example, absorbing heat during the day and releasing it at night over a diurnal cycle.The heat exchanger consists of a cylindrical shell (tank) filled with uniformly distributed PCM, through which a copper tube follows a winding path. Cross-shaped copper fins are placed along the tube to enhance heat transfer, with copper chosen throughout for its high thermal conductivity and the tube wall set to a thickness of 0.001 m. Meshing was performed using an unstructured grid of 2,448,380 elements, resolving the PCM volume, the copper tube, the copper fins, and the fluid flow path, along with the interfaces between the different materials and phases.MethodologyThe phase transition is captured using the Solidification and Melting model, which is the heart of the simulation. The PCM has a solidus temperature of 314.15 K, a liquidus temperature of 317.15 K, and a latent heat of fusion of 255,000 J/kg.The PCM is paraffin, with a density of 750 kg/m³, a specific heat capacity of 2000 J/kg·K, a thermal conductivity of 0.2 W/m·K, and a viscosity of 0.008 kg/m·s. The heat transfer fluid is water, entering at 325.15 K with a mass flow rate of 1.4973 kg/s, while the copper tube and fins provide the high-conductivity structural path for the heat. The analysis is transient, run over a duration of 1200 seconds, with the time step and convergence tolerances chosen to accurately capture the phase-change process.ConclusionThe results track the thermal evolution and phase transition throughout the storage medium: the temperature distribution across the PCM, the progression of the melting front as the solid-liquid interface advances over time, the development of the liquid fraction as the PCM melts, and the enhanced heat transfer near the tube and fin surfaces.From these, the system's performance can be evaluated — the total thermal energy stored in the PCM, the charging rate in response to the heat input, the temperature gradients that develop, and the contribution of the fins to the overall heat transfer. Together, they offer practical engineering insight into fin placement and tube routing, the influence of flow rate and inlet temperature, and the transient response during the charging cycle.Overall, the simulation shows how a finned shell-and-tube configuration helps overcome the inherently low thermal conductivity of PCMs, using the Solidification and Melting model to reveal the melting behavior at the core of latent-heat storage. Such systems are well suited to applications that depend on efficient thermal storage and release, including building climate control, solar thermal systems, and waste heat recovery.

DescriptionThis project studies a solar water heater that uses encapsulated phase change material (PCM) for thermal storage, simulated in ANSYS Fluent. PCMs are attractive for this application because they absorb and release large amounts of latent heat while melting and freezing over a nearly constant temperature range, making them a self-regulating way to bank heat that arrives intermittently, exactly the pattern solar collection follows. The geometry is the annular gap between two coaxial tubes, with PCM filling that gap, built in Design Modeler and meshed in ANSYS Meshing with an unstructured grid of 5,803 cells. The inner wall, 0.0015 m thick, is held at a fixed 603.3 K to drive heat into the PCM, while the outer wall is set adiabatic so the PCM's thermal response can be studied in isolation from any outer heat loss.MethodologyThe energy equation is activated to resolve the temperature field, and the phase change itself is captured through Fluent's Solidification and Melting model, which tracks the PCM transitioning between solid and liquid as its temperature crosses the melting range. Because natural convection develops in the molten region and plays a strong role in how heat spreads through the material, the Boussinesq approximation is used to represent the buoyancy effects arising from temperature-dependent density changes. Setting up the phase-change physics requires specifying the PCM's solidus and liquidus temperatures along with its latent heat of melting. The study is structured to explore several variables: how the PCM's melting/freezing temperature affects performance, how the PCM volume affects storage behavior, and how the PCM-equipped tank compares against a tank with no PCM at all.AnalysisResults are reported as contours of temperature, velocity, pressure, and liquid volume fraction. These fields track each other consistently through the simulation: as the PCM absorbs heat from the inner wall, its temperature rises and the liquid fraction increases correspondingly, and as it cools, the process reverses and the material re-solidifies. This direct correspondence between the temperature and liquid-fraction fields confirms the phase-change model is capturing the melting and freezing cycle correctly, providing a basis for evaluating how PCM properties and quantity affect the tank's thermal storage performance relative to a conventional, PCM-free design.

DescriptionThis project simulates an air conditioning system that uses phase change material (PCM) as its thermal storage medium, modeled in ANSYS Fluent. PCMs are organic compounds that absorb and store large amounts of latent heat as they melt, drawing heat from the surrounding air and cooling the room during hot periods, then release that stored heat back as they re-solidify, providing warmth during cooler periods. The specific PCM used here is rubidium-rt20, with a density of 1480 kg/m³, specific heat of 2500 J/kg·K, thermal conductivity of 0.6 W/m·K, and viscosity of 0.164428 kg/m·s. The model is a 2D rectangular domain of 0.09 m × 0.5 m containing four distinct PCM zones, built in Design Modeler and meshed in ANSYS Meshing with a structured grid of 45,000 elements. Given the time-dependent nature of the phase change process, a transient solver is used throughout.MethodologyThe PCM behavior is captured through Fluent's Solidification and Melting model, with the phase transition defined by a solidus temperature of 295.15 K, a liquidus temperature of 297.15 K, and a latent heat of melting of 150,000 J/kg, giving the material a very narrow 2 K melting range characteristic of organic PCMs. Warm air enters the domain horizontally from the upper inlet at 0.018 kg/s and 302.15 K, exits at atmospheric pressure through the lower outlet, and as it passes the PCM zones, the temperature difference drives heat transfer into the material and triggers melting. Turbulence and temperature distribution are resolved with the RNG k-epsilon model and energy equation, and the simulation runs with a time step of 0.5 s.AnalysisThe results include 2D contours of pressure, velocity, temperature, and liquid mass fraction extracted at multiple time steps throughout the simulation. The temperature and liquid mass fraction contours together show the PCM progressively melting over time as it absorbs heat from the warm airflow, with the liquid fraction increasing steadily as the simulation advances. Pressure and velocity fields, by contrast, stabilize relatively quickly and remain approximately constant thereafter, indicating that the flow field reaches a quasi-steady condition while the slower phase change process continues to evolve in the PCM zones.