Thermal performance enhancement of melting and solidification process of phase-change material in triplex tube heat exchanger using longitudinal fins

Increasing energy consumption in residential and public buildings requires development of new technologies for thermal energy production and storage. One of possibilities for the second listed need is the use of phase change materials (PCMs). This work is focused on solutions in this area and consists of two parts. First one is focused on different designs of thermal energy storage (TES) tanks based on the phase change materials. The second part is the analysis of tests results for TES tank containing shelf and tube heat exchanger and filled with phase change material. Thermal energy storage tank is analyzed in order to use it in domestic heating and hot utility water installations. The aim of this research was to check the applicability of phase change material for mentioned purpose. Results show that using phase change materials for thermal energy storage can increase amount of stored heat. The use of properly selected PCM and heat exchanger enables the process of thermal energy storing and releasing to become more efficient.

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Numerical Simulation on Melting and Solidification of a Phase-Change Material in an Aluminum Plate-Fin Thermal Storage

Heat Transfer: Volume 2 ◽

10.1115/ht2008-56057 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Minhui Lv ◽

Hao Peng ◽

Xiang Ling

Keyword(s):

Numerical Simulation ◽

Phase Change ◽

Flow Velocity ◽

Phase Change Material ◽

Solidification Process ◽

Thermal Storage ◽

Aluminum Plate ◽

Inlet Temperature ◽

Change Material ◽

Melting And Solidification

The numerical simulation on melting and solidification process of a phase-change material (PCM) in an aluminum plate-fin thermal storage was performed in this paper. The phase-change material-naphthalene was stored in the stacked passages with fins while water flew along other adjacent passages with fins as the heat transfer fluid (HTF). The PCM stored or released a large amount of heat during melting or solidification. A three-dimensional numerical model was performed to investigate the effect of flow parameters (inlet temperature and flow velocity of HTF) on the melting and solidification time. The results indicated that the rate of phase change was strongly dependent on the inlet temperature and flow velocity of HTF during storing or releasing heat. And the detail description of solidification process were discussed and presented.

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Numerical analysis of phase-change material melting in triplex tube heat exchanger

Renewable Energy ◽

10.1016/j.renene.2019.06.092 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 145 ◽

pp. 867-877 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kun Yang ◽

Neng Zhu ◽

Chen Chang ◽

Haoran Yu ◽

Shan Yang

Keyword(s):

Heat Exchanger ◽

Numerical Analysis ◽

Phase Change ◽

Phase Change Material ◽

Tube Heat Exchanger ◽

Change Material

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Thermal performance enhancement of energy storage systems via phase change materials utilising an innovative webbed tube heat exchanger

Energy Procedia ◽

10.1016/j.egypro.2018.09.027 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 151 ◽

pp. 57-61

Author(s):

Ahmed H.N. Al-Mudhafar ◽

Andrzej F. Nowakowski ◽

Franck C.G.A. Nicolleau

Keyword(s):

Energy Storage ◽

Heat Exchanger ◽

Phase Change ◽

Thermal Performance ◽

Phase Change Materials ◽

Performance Enhancement ◽

Storage Systems ◽

Energy Storage Systems ◽

Tube Heat Exchanger

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Second-Law Efficiency of an Energy Storage-Removal Cycle in a Phase-Change Material Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger

Journal of Solar Energy Engineering ◽

10.1115/1.2930057 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 115 (4) ◽

pp. 240-243 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Ch. Charach

Keyword(s):

Heat Transfer ◽

Heat Exchanger ◽

Phase Change ◽

Phase Change Material ◽

Latent Heat ◽

Heat Storage ◽

Latent Heat Storage ◽

Tube Heat Exchanger ◽

Shell And Tube ◽

Change Material

This communication extends the thermodynamic analysis of latent heat storage in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger, developed recently, to the complete heat storage-removal cycle. Conditions for the cyclic operation of this system are formulated within the quasi-steady approximation for the axisymmetric two-dimensional conduction-controlled phase change. Explicit expressions for the overall number of entropy generation units that account for heat transfer and pressure drop irreversibilities are derived. Optimization of this figure of merit with respect to the freezing point of the phase-change material and with respect to the number of heat transfer units is analyzed. When the frictional irreversibilities of the heat removal stage are negligible, the results of these studies are in agreement with those developed recently by De Lucia and Bejan (1991) for a one-dimensional latent heat storage system.

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