Abstract: | Melting from an array of three staggered, electrically heated cylinders imbedded in paraffin (n-octadecane) has been studied. The shape of the melting front has been determined photographically, and the local heat transfer coefficients were measured using a shadowgraph technique. The experiments provide conclusive evidence of the important role played by natural convection on the time variation of the melt shape, the surface temperature and the instantaneous local as well as circumferentially averaged heat transfer coefficients around the imbedded heat sources. After a common solid-liquid interface is formed around the cylinders, natural convection circulation around each cylin¬der interacts strongly with the other two cylinders. |
