Phase change heat transfer
 

Dear all,

I am new in fluent and want to try modelling the heat transfer inside the solid material to obtain the temperature profile.

a 1m x 1m x 1m solid cube made from common cement. this object is a porous material (porosity 30% by volume) which is assumed throughout the pores are filled with wax that can change phase (from solid to liquid) at a temperature of 30 degrees centigrade. It is assumed that liquid wax does not seep into the surrounding (no displacement of material position).

on the one side of the cube there is a heating element which has a temperature of 40 degrees centigrade at its steady state. other sides are insulated, except the surface which is parallel to the element, so that heat transfer occurs in one direction only. initial conditions of all components are at 25 degrees centigrade (including the heating element before switched on).

I want to get the temperature contours on its transient conditions. how do i setup this system? Can I combine the porous material and melting in this process or do I have to draw the mesh of the vacant areas filled by wax (which means the positions of the wax are not random)?

Thank you for your attention.