Melting heat transfer along a horizontal heated tube immersed in a fluidized liquid ice bed

An experimental study was performed to determine the melting heat transfer characteristics along a horizontal heated circular tube immersed in a solid-air-liquid three-phase fluidized liquid ice bed. A mixture of fine ice particles and ethylene glycol acqueous solution was adopted as the liquid ice for the test. Measurements were carried out for a range of parameters such as airflow rate, heated tube diameter, and initial concentration of acqueous binary solution. It was found that the heat transfer coefficient for the fluidized liquid ice bed might be more than 20 times as large as that for the fixed liquid ice bed.