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Heat Storage Performance of PCM in a Novel Vertical Pointer-Shaped Finned Latent Heat Tank

  • Special Column: Recent Advances in PCMs as Thermal Energy Storage in Energy Systems
  • Published:
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Abstract

The heat storage performance of latent heat storage systems is not good due to the poor thermal conductivity of phase change materials. In this paper, a new type of pointer-shaped fins combining rectangular and triangular fins has been employed to numerically simulate the melting process in the heat storage tank, and the fin geometry parameter effects on heat storage performance have been studied. The results indicate that compared with the bare tube and the rectangular finned tank, the melting time of the phase change material in the pointer-shaped finned tank is reduced by 64.2% and 15.1%, respectively. The closer the tip of the triangular fin is to the hot wall, the better the heat transfer efficiency. The optimal height of the triangular fin is about 8 mm. Increasing the number of fins from 4 to 6 and from 6 to 8 reduces the melting time by 16.0% and 16.7% respectively. However, increasing the number of fins from 8 to 10 only reduces the melting time by 8.4%. When the fin dimensionless length is increased from 0.3 to 0.5 and from 0.5 to 0.7, the melting time is shortened by 17.5% and 13.0%. But the melting time is only reduced by 2.9% when the dimensionless fin length is increased from 0.7 to 0.9. For optimising the design of the thermal storage system, the results can provide a reference value.

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Abbreviations

A mush :

mushy zone constant

B :

height of heat storage tank/mm

c p :

specific heat capacity/J·kg−1·K−1

F :

length of the fin/mm

\({\vec g}\) :

gravity/m·s−2

H :

total enthalpy/J·kg−1

ΔH :

latent heat enthalpy/J·kg−1

h :

sensible enthalpy/J·kg−1

k :

thermal conductivity/W·m−1·K−1

L :

latent heat/J·kg−1

Δl :

dimensionless length of the fin

N :

number of the fin

P :

pressure/Pa

Q :

total heat storage/kJ

R :

outer tube radius/mm

r :

inner tube radius/mm

\({\vec S}\) :

Darcy’s law damping term

T :

temperature/K

t :

time/s

V PCM :

volume of the phase change material/m3

\({\vec V}\) :

velocity vector/m·s−1

w :

height of the triangular fin/mm

Z :

distance between the tip of the triangular fin and the hot wall/mm

HTF:

heat transfer fluid

LHTES:

latent heat thermal energy storage

PCM:

phase change material

PSF:

pointer-shaped fin

β :

thermal expansion coefficient/K−1

δ :

inner tube wall thickness/mm

λ :

melt fraction

μ :

dynamic viscosity/Pa·s

ρ :

density/kg·m−3

φ :

average heat storage rate/J·s−1

0:

initial

ave:

average

l:

liquidus

lh:

latent heat

ref:

reference

s:

solidus

sh:

sensible heat

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Acknowledgments

This study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51876147).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Urban Construction, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430065, China

    Qianjun Mao, Yuanyuan Zhu & Tao Li

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  1. Qianjun Mao
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Correspondence to Tao Li.

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Mao, Q., Zhu, Y. & Li, T. Heat Storage Performance of PCM in a Novel Vertical Pointer-Shaped Finned Latent Heat Tank. J. Therm. Sci. 33, 422–434 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-024-1910-7

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