Experimental Study on the Molten Salt at Micron Scale during the Melting Process

• Published in: Journal of thermal science 2024, Vol.33 (1), p.70-85
• Main Authors: Tian, Ziqian, Liao, Zhirong, Xu, Chao, Fang, Yongzhe, Jiang, Kaijun, Yuan, Mengdi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classical and Continuum Physics; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Engineering Thermodynamics; Heat and Mass Transfer; Heating rate; Kinetic equations; Liquid phases; Melting; Molten salts; Morphology; Parameters; Phase transitions; Physics; Physics and Astronomy
• ISSN: 1003-2169; 1993-033X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11630-023-1880-1

The investigation of the melting behaviors of the molten salt at micron scale during the melting process is critical for explaining the solid-liquid phase transition mechanism. In this paper, a novel experimental system and analysis method were proposed to study the melting process with three heating rates in the range of 1–10°C/min of the solar salt at micron scale. The solid-liquid boundary morphology and phase transition kinetics of molten salt particles were focused on. Meanwhile, the correlations between liquid fraction, temperature and time under different heating rates were studied. The solid-liquid boundary morphology was depicted by the visualized experimental set-up, and the instantaneous liquid volume fraction during the non-isothermal phase transition was obtained. Then, the correlation between temperature and liquid volume fraction was proposed to reveal the evolution of the solid-liquid boundary with temperature at different heating rates. Furthermore, the non-isothermal phase transition kinetic equation was established by introducing a constant parameter ( V a , b ), and more kinetic parameters such as 1g V a , b and–1g V a , b / b were studied. The results showed that the exponent b is not sensitive to the heating rate with a range of 3–5 for solar salt particles. However, the heating rate influences the value of V a , b and presents a positive relationship. Besides, the non-isothermal phase transition kinetic equations at different heating rates in the range of 1–10°C/min can be quickly predicted by the proposed improved experimental test method. This study could fill the research insufficiency and provide significant guidance for future research on the solid-liquid transition mechanism of molten salts at micron scale.