Efficient lattice Boltzmann method for electrohydrodynamic solid-liquid phase change

Melting in the presence of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow driven by the Coulomb force in dielectric phase change material is numerically studied. A model is developed for the EHD flow in the solid-liquid phase change process. The fully coupled equations including mechanical equations, electrical equations, energy equations, and the continuity equations in the solid-liquid interface are solved using a unified lattice Boltzmann model (LBM). Firstly, the numerical model is validated by several cases in the hydrostatic state, and all LBM results are found to be highly consistent with analytical solutions. Besides, our LBM code is able to reproduce the step changes in the distribution of charge density and electric field due to the discontinuous distribution of physical properties at the interface. Then, a systematical investigation is conducted on various nondimensional parameters, including electric Rayleigh number T, Prandtl number Pr, and Stefan number St. Results are presented for the transient evolutions of temperature, fluid flow, charge density fields, and liquid fraction. Four flow stages in the melting process together with three kinds of flow instabilities are observed. It is found that the electric field has significant influence on the melting, especially at high T and Pr and low St. Over the tested cases, a maximum melting time saving of around 50% is found.