Study on Contact Melting Inside an Elliptical Tube With Nonisothermal Wall

Abstract

The problem of contact melting inside an elliptical tube with nonisothermal wall is investigated. A theoretical model, which the inner wall temperature of source varied with angle ϕ, is established by applying film theory. The basic equations of the melting process are solved theoretically, and a closed-form solution is obtained. Under certain cases, comparisons of results for the melting velocity with those of contact melting inside a horizontal cylindrical tube with nonisothermal wall and an elliptical tube with constant temperature are reported for the validity of the solution in this paper. Effects of aspect ratio J and inner wall temperature distribution are critically assessed. It is found that the smaller the elliptical aspect ratio J is, the greater the effect of wall temperature distribution on melting velocity, and the time to complete melting increases with the augment of coefficient c in temperature distribution.