Pr. Hamid El Qarnia

Faculty of sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco.

Phase change materials (PCMs) are substances that store and release relatively high thermal energy in latent form during the processes of melting and solidification. They can be used in a large variety of practical applications such as thermal energy storage, air conditioning and heating, electronic cooling, cold storage, ingot solidification and scrap melting in metallurgy. The melting and solidification processes which occur during the phage change of PCM are classified “free boundary problem” or “moving boundary problem”.

Due to the presence of the moving solid-liquid interface, phase change problems are complex to solve. Indeed, the determination of the position of this moving boundary is an important part of the solution procedure. The mathematician Stefan gives the first detailed study of this type of problems and treats the formation of ice in the polar seas. Since this work, many other researchers, create, develop and apply mathematical models and computational methods to melting and freezing problems.

The symposium on PCMs and their applications is an opportunity to promote the interaction between researchers involved in the development and application of approaches to treat the solid-liquid phase change processes occurring in PCMs.

Pr. Hamid El Qarnia completed his Doctorat in Energetic (November 1988) from Cadi Ayyad University (Marrakesh, Morocco) and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering on the topic of PCM integrated in heat exchangers to prevent frosting (June1999) from Sherbrooke University (Québec, Canada). He has worked as Associate Professor at Faculty of sciences Semlalia (Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh) from 1989 to 1995. He has also worked as Assistant teacher at Mechanical Engineering Department (Sherbrooke University, Canada) from 1996 to 1999. From February to July 2000, he worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at Mechanical Engineering Department (Sherbrooke University). From February to July 2001, he worked as a consultant and supervisor of projects on heat transfer applications at ENERSTAT Entreprise at Sherbrooke (Québec, Canada). Dr. Hamid El Qarnia is currently Professor at Faculty of sciences Semlalia (Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco). His actual research activities concern the modeling and simulation of heat transfer during solid-liquid phase change process to improve the design of latent heat storage systems and optimize their performances. He is also working on the application of PCM for thermal solar energy storage. He is also interested on the development of analytical solutions of solid-liquid phase change process. He has published several research papers in various international journals and conferences. He served as an editorial board for 4 journals and as a reviewer for several international journals, research project and chapter book. Further, he was member of several scientific committees of International Conferences. He was a chairman of the International Meeting on Heat Transfer (JITH2013, November 13-15, Marrakesh, Morocco). He has also organized the first Symposium on Analytical and Numerical Solutions of Melting and Solidification Problems’’, SANSMSP 2012 (ICNAAM 2012, September 19-25, Kos, Greece).