Due to the potential cost saving and minimal temperature stratification, the energy storage based on phase-change materials (PCMs) can be a reliable approach for decoupling energy demand from immediate supply availability. However, due to their high heat resistance, these materials necessitate the introduction of enhancing additives, such as expanded surfaces and fins, to enable their deployment in more widespread thermal and energy storage applications. This study reports on how circular fins with staggered distribution and variable orientations can be employed for addressing the low thermal response rates in a PCM (Paraffin RT-35) triple-tube heat exchanger consisting of two heat-transfer fluids flow in opposites directions through the inner and the outer tubes. Various configurations, dimensions, and orientations of the circular fins at different flow conditions of the heat-transfer fluid were numerically examined and optimized using an experimentally validated computational fluid-dynamic model. The results show that the melting rate, compared with the base case of finless, can be improved by 88% and the heat charging rate by 34%, when the fin orientation is downward–upward along the left side and the right side of the PCM shell. The results also show that there is a benefit if longer fins with smaller thicknesses are adopted in the vertical direction of the storage unit. This benefit helps natural convection to play a greater role, resulting in higher melting rates. Changing the fins’ dimensions from (thickness × length) 2 × 7.071 mm2 to 0.55 × 25.76 mm2 decreases the melting time by 22% and increases the heat charging rate by 9.6%. This study has also confirmed the importance of selecting the suitable values of Reynolds numbers and the inlet temperatures of the heat-transfer fluid for optimizing the melting enhancement potential of circular fins with downward–upward fin orientations.
The present study explores numerically the energy storage and energy regeneration during Melting and Solidification processes in Phase Change Materials (PCM) used in Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage (LHTES) systems. Transient two-dimensional (2-D) conduction heat transfer equations with phase change have been solved utilizing the Explicit Finite Difference Method (FDM) and Grid Generation technique. A Fortran computer program was built to solve the problem. The study included four different Paraffin's. The effects of container geometrical shape, which included cylindrical and square sections of the same volume and heat transfer area, the container volume or mass of PCM, variation of mass flow rate of heat transfer fluid (HTF), and temp
... Show MoreA free convective heat transfer from the inside surface of a uniformly heated vertical circular tube has been experimentally investigated under a constant wall heat flux boundary condition for laminar air flow in the ranges of RaL from 6.9108 to 5109. The effect of the different sections (restrictions) lengths placed at the exit of the heated tube on the surface temperature distribution, the local and average heat transfer coefficients were examined. The experimental apparatus consists of aluminum circular tube with 900 mm length and 30 mm inside diameter (L/D=30). The exit sections (restrictions) were included circular tubes having the same inside diameter as the heated tube but with different lengths of
... Show MoreIn this study, a different design of passive air Solar Chimney(SC)was tested by installing it in the south wall of insulated test room in Baghdad city. The SC was designed from vertical and inclined parts connected serially together, the vertical SC (first part) has a single pass and Thermal Energy Storage Box Collector (TESB (refined paraffin wax as Phase Change Material(PCM)-Copper Foam Matrix(CFM))), while the inclined SC was designed in single pass, double passes and double pass with TESB (semi refined paraffin wax with copper foam matrix) with selective working angle ((30o, 45o and 60o). A computational model was employed and solved by Finite Volume Method (FVM) to simulate the air i
... Show MoreIn this study, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of Al2O3-water nanofluids for a range of the Reynolds number of 3000, 4500, 6000 and 7500 with a range of volume concentration of 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% are studied numerically. The test rig consists of cold liquid loop, hot liquid loop and the test section which is counter flow double pipe heat exchanger with 1m length. The inner tube is made of smooth copper with diameter of 15mm. The outer tube is made of smooth copper with diameter of 50mm. The hot liquid flows through the outer tube and the cold liquid (or nanofluid) flow through the inner tube. The boundary condition of this study is thermally insulated the outer wall with uniform velocity a
... Show MoreCO2 geo-storage efficiency is strongly influenced by the wettability of the CO2-brine-mineral system. With decreasing water-wetness, both, structural and residual trapping capacities are substantially reduced. This constitutes a serious limitation for CO2 storage particularly in oil-wet formations (which are CO2-wet). To overcome this, we treated CO2-wet calcite surfaces with nanofluids (nanoparticles dispersed in base fluid) and found that the systems turned strongly water-wet state, indicating a significant wettability alteration and thus a drastic improvement in storage potential. We thus conclude that CO2 storage capacity can be significantly enhanced by nanofluid priming.
The melting duration in the photovoltaic/phase-change material (PV/PCM) system is a crucial parameter for thermal energy management such that its improvement can realize better energy management in respect to thermal storage capabilities, thermal conditions, and the lifespan of PV modules. An innovative and efficient technique for improving the melting duration is the inclusion of an exterior metal foam layer in the PV/PCM system. For detailed investigations of utilizing different metal foam configurations in terms of their convective heat transfer coefficients, the present paper proposes a newly developed mathematical model for the PV/PCM–metal foam assembly that can readily be implemented with a wide range of operating condition
... Show MoreConvection heat transfer in a horizontal channel provided with metal foam blocks of two numbers of pores per unit of length (10 and 40 PPI) and partially heated at a constant heat flux is experimentally investigated with air as the working fluid. A series of experiments have been carried out under steady state condition. The experimental investigations cover the Reynolds number range from 638 to 2168, heat fluxes varied from 453 to 4462 W/m2, and Darcy number 1.77x10-5, 3.95x10-6. The measured data were collected and analyzed. Results show that the wall temperatures at each heated section are affected by the imposed heat flux variation, Darcy number, and Reynolds number variation. The var
... Show MoreNumerical simulations have been investigated to study the external free convective heat transfer from a vertically rectangular interrupted fin arrays. The continuity, Naver-Stockes and energy equations have been solved for steady-state, incompressible, two dimensional, laminar with Boussiuesq approximation by Fluent 15 software. The performance of interrupted fins was evaluated to gain the optimum ratio of interrupted length to fin length (