Research On The Melting Mechanics Of A Row Of Icicle On The Heated Surface

Solar-heat storage in the soil snow-melting system will be applied widely with the development of solar technology and the recognition to the traffic safety, the frost generating on the heat-exchanger of large refrigeration equipment will decrease its heat exchange efficiency obviously, and the effective and energy-saving defrosting method is of utmost importance. For this reason, the paper which regards the snow and defrost melt as the icicles melt on the heated surface is of great significance.Bone porous melting characteristics in the air of snow or frost layer were simulated with a row of icicle. The numerical simulation of the icicle-melting was implemented with the aid of computational fluid dynamics software FLUENT by the arithmetic of coupled heat transfer of gas-solid and solid-solid interfaces, and the melting process is visualized. Simulations on icicle-melting under conditions of different heated temperature, horizontal air velocity and contact area of icicle and air were performed, and the melting time was obtained. The results showed that melting time decreased significantly with increasing temperature of the heated surface. Increasing the horizontal air velocity did not contribute to the icicle melting process, because the air temperature is just the icicle melting point. Increasing the contact area of icicle and air can speed up the icicle melting.According to the 3-D numerical simulation, we obtained the conclusion: different from the 2-D simulation, in the 3-D numerical simulation, the last two ranks of icicles melt more quickly because of the influence from air flow of Y direction and the temperature field.The results will be valuable for the projects such as snow melt and defrost.