Unsteady natural convection of nano-encapsulated phase change materials (NEPCMs) inside a random porous medium considering local thermal non-equilibrium condition

A local thermal non-equilibrium analysis is undertaken to simulate unsteady free convective heat transfer inside a square enclosure filled with a random porous medium. There is a time-varying temperature profile at the hot wall. The fluid is a suspension comprising nano-encapsulated phase change materials (NEPCM) particles dispersed in water while aluminum foam, copper foam, or glass balls are considered for the solid matrix. It is found that when the hot wall temperature reaches its minimum value during one oscillation period, most of the cavity is occupied by the NEPCM particles in the solidious phase. For the metallic foams, the heat transfer of the medium is substantially higher than the NEPCM particles. Meanwhile, the Nusselt number of the glass balls is much lower than the suspension. A rise in the dimensionless frequency or amplitude of the temperature profile as well as approaching the dimensionless fusion temperature to 0.5 elevates Nusselt number of the suspension. However, no general conclusion can be drawn for their consequences on the heat transfer in the solid matrix. Among the current alterable parameters, only the contributions of the non-dimensional interface heat transfer coefficient and the non-dimensional amplitude of the temperature profile are found significant.