Effect of fin number on the melting phase change in a horizontal finned shell-and-tube thermal energy storage unit

Experimental and numerical investigations of thermal performance enhancement in a latent heat storage heat exchanger using bifurcated and straight fins

Experimental and numerical studies on the heat transfer improvement of a latent heat storage unit using gradient tree-shaped fins

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Design and assessments on a hybrid pin fin-metal foam structure towards enhancing melting heat transfer: An experimental study

Recent advancements in latent heat phase change materials and their applications for thermal energy storage and buildings: A state of the art review

The aim of this study is to evaluate the combined effect of fin configuration and eccentricity of heat transfer tube on melting behavior of phase change material (PCM) inside the shell and tube heat exchanger (HX). Two unfinned HXs with concentric and eccentric heat transfer tubes and six other HXs with different arrangements of straight and bifurcated fins were fabricated while the total fin mass was kept constant. The shells of heat exchangers were made of transparent Plexiglas and the melting process was photographed to enable the analysis of the solid-liquid interface evolution. Experimental findings of the unfinned HXs showed that applying the eccentric tube HX leads to a 54% reduction in melting time compared to the concentric tube HX. Among all the cases considered, bifurcated fin configuration outperforms the straight fin configuration. The maximum melting time reduction compared to the HX with concentric unfinned tube was 85% obtained by eccentric tube HX with a long upper bifurcated fin and a short lower straight fin. Transient numerical simulations using a control volume approach were carried out for three tube wall temperatures of 75, 85 and 95 °C. Numerical results showed that the bifurcations increase the total heat transfer rate while the convective heat transfer coefficient decreases.

Thermal performance investigation of concentric and eccentric shell and tube heat exchangers with different fin configurations containing phase change material

In this research, the combined effects of the shell geometry and downward eccentricity of the heat transfer tube on the melting behavior of the paraffin wax in shell and tube heat exchangers (HXs) are parametrically investigated. Different shell geometries with a wide range of eccentricity factors are studied while the mass of paraffin in all geometries is kept constant. Transient numerical simulations using the enthalpy-porosity method have been carried out to explore the melt interface evolution, streamlines, heat transfer rates, average velocities, as well as thermal energy storages for all the considered cases. Results reveal that the melting rate accelerates by increasing the eccentricity of the HTF tube. Nevertheless, there is an optimum eccentricity factor for each geometry beyond which the melting rate reduces. The maximum melting time reduction compared to the concentric tube HX with circular shell (base case) was 50.4% obtained by the HX with circular shell at an eccentricity factor of 0.5. It was also concluded that increasing the eccentricity factor prolongs the convection-dominated melting time and shortens the conduction-dominated melting, and results in a more uniform heat transfer rate over the whole charging process which is important for the industrial deployment of the thermal storage units. 

Investigation of the effects of shell geometry and tube eccentricity on thermal energy storage in shell and tube heat exchangers

This paper presents the numerical simulations and machine learning-based prediction of the transient melting process of phase change material (PCM) in latent heat thermal storage (LHTS) units. The storage units are rectangular enclosures equipped with fins of different heights and numbers. For all enclosures, the volume of fins and PCM are kept constant. Melting processes of PCM in different storage units are simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to determine the impacts of fin parameters on the thermal behavior of the LHTS unit. Transient variation of liquid fraction and stored energy in the different storage units are obtained. Then, the group method of data handling (GMDH) type of artificial neural networks (ANNs) is employed and trained through numerical findings to develop correlations for predicting the instantaneous liquid fractions and stored energy in the finned enclosures. To evaluate the effectiveness of the prediction model, mean square, root mean square, and standard deviation errors as well as correlation coefficient have been calculated and proved the accuracy of the proposed correlations. 

Machine learning-based prediction of transient latent heat thermal storage in finned enclosures using group method of data handling approach: A numerical simulation

Sensitivity analysis of design parameters for melting process of lauric acid in the vertically and horizontally oriented rectangular thermal storage units

Vahid Safari

Papers

Thermal performance investigation of concentric and eccentric shell and tube heat exchangers with different fin configurations containing phase change material

Experimental and numerical investigations of thermal performance enhancement in a latent heat storage heat exchanger using bifurcated and straight fins

Investigation of the effects of shell geometry and tube eccentricity on thermal energy storage in shell and tube heat exchangers

Machine learning-based prediction of transient latent heat thermal storage in finned enclosures using group method of data handling approach: A numerical simulation

Sensitivity analysis of design parameters for melting process of lauric acid in the vertically and horizontally oriented rectangular thermal storage units