Phase change materials (PCM) are attractive candidates for energy storage. They can store large quantities of energy in small volumes at nearly constant temperatures. Despite their advantage, their thermal conductivity is very low with a high-volume change during the melting and solidification process. One way to increase their poor thermal conductivity is to embed them into open cell metallic foams. In this paper, a numerical study is conducted on the effect of the heating and cooling conditions on phase change kinetics of paraffin embedded in a metal foam. Constant heating and sinusoidal heating are similarly investigated. For the constant heat flux, a step function ranging from +1800 W/m² to −1800 W/m² is considered, while for the variable heat flux, a sinusoidal function having a similar area as step function is considered at one wall of the container to provide heating and cooling of the PCM/Metal foam composite. A new mathematical model based on the Brinkmann-Forchheimer-extended Darcy equation and the local thermal non-equilibrium model (LTNE) is proposed by applying a two-energy equation. The paraffin phase change is modeled using the enthalpy-porosity method. The numerical results are validated by comparing them with the experimental data. The results showed that at the time of melting it has reduced with sinusoidal heating. The results also showed that the heat losses on the boundary have a greater effect in a sinusoidal heat flux case than in constant heat flux case and this effect is more important on the solidification than on the melting process of the paraffin.

相变材料（PCM）是用于能量存储的有吸引力的候选者。它们可以在几乎恒定的温度下以小体积存储大量能量。尽管它们具有优势，但它们的导热率非常低，在熔化和固化过程中会发生大量变化。增加其不良导热性的一种方法是将它们嵌入开孔金属泡沫中。本文针对加热和冷却条件对嵌入金属泡沫中的石蜡的相变动力学的影响进行了数值研究。类似地研究了恒定加热和正弦加热。对于恒定的热通量，阶跃函数范围为+1800 W / m ²到-1800 W / m ²考虑到对于可变的热通量，在容器的一壁处考虑具有与阶梯函数相似的面积的正弦函数，以提供PCM /金属泡沫复合材料的加热和冷却。通过应用两能方程，提出了一种基于Brinkmann-Forchheimer-扩展Darcy方程和局部热不平衡模型（LTNE）的新数学模型。使用焓-孔隙率方法对石蜡相变进行建模。通过将数值结果与实验数据进行比较来验证数值结果。结果表明，在熔化时，它随着正弦加热而减少。