Numerical analysis of discharging process acceleration in LHTESS by immersing innovative fin configuration using finite element method

Abstract Discharging process of Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage Systems (LHTESS) containing Phase Change Material (PCM) has been discussed in the present paper. In these systems, thermal energy storage and retrieval occur during solid-liquid phase change. They are used to establish balance between energy supply and demand, but the main restriction for these systems is the weak thermal conductivity of working fluid. In recent years, several enhancement techniques have been employed in order to overcome this problem. In the present study, the method of nanoparticles dispersion in pure PCM to make Nano-Enhanced Phase Change Material (NEPCM) and adding fins with innovative configuration are applied to accelerate solidification process. The abovementioned techniques are analyzed separately. First the geometry parameters of the fin are changed to find the best fin array. Then the effect of nanoparticles volume fraction on solidification rate is studied. The numerical approach in this paper is Standard Galerkin Finite Element Method. In this work, an innovative fin configuration, based on snowflake crystal structure, has been employed to enhance the performance of LHTESS during the discharging process, also the efficiency of nanoparticle dispersion in PCM and adding fin with different structures on LHTESS performance has been examined from the viewpoint of either discharging expedition or maximum energy storage capacity, which are proposed as the novelties here. Results indicate that enhancement of discharging process in LHTESS by applying Snowflake shaped fin structure in comparison with nanoparticle dispersion is higher significantly, although it doesn’t reduce maximum energy storage capacity considerably.

[1]  D. Leducq,et al.  Performance enhancement of a household refrigerator by addition of latent heat storage , 2008 .

[2]  Arun S. Mujumdar,et al.  Melting of a phase change material in concentric horizontal annuli of arbitrary cross-section , 2000 .

[3]  U. Stritih.  An experimental study of enhanced heat transfer in rectangular PCM thermal storage , 2004 .

[4]  Nabeel S. Dhaidan,et al.  Experimental and numerical investigation of melting of phase change material/nanoparticle suspensions in a square container subjected to a constant heat flux , 2013 .

[5]  Liwu Fan,et al.  A similarity solution to unidirectional solidification of nano-enhanced phase change materials (NePCM) considering the mushy region effect , 2015 .

[6]  K. Ismail,et al.  Numerical and experimental study on the solidification of PCM around a vertical axially finned isothermal cylinder , 2001 .

[7]  Hisham Ettouney,et al.  Heat Transfer Characteristics during Melting and Solidification of Phase Change Energy Storage Process , 2004 .

[8]  Mohsen Sheikholeslami Kandelousi.  Effect of spatially variable magnetic field on ferrofluid flow and heat transfer considering constant heat flux boundary condition , 2014 .

[9]  A. Mohamad.  Myth about nano-fluid heat transfer enhancement , 2015 .

[10]  S. Shalaby,et al.  Experimental investigation of a novel indirect solar dryer implementing PCM as energy storage medium , 2014 .

[11]  T. Kousksou,et al.  Numerical Simulation of PCM melting over a wavy surface , 2014 .

[12]  E. Ozturk,et al.  Nonlinear intersubband absorption and refractive index change in n-type δ-doped GaAs for different donor distributions , 2015 .

[13]  D. Ganji,et al.  Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrofluid flow and convective heat transfer , 2014 .

[14]  H. Shokouhmand,et al.  Experimental investigation of phase change material melting in rectangular enclosures with horizontal partial fins , 2014 .

[15]  Mohammad Mehdi Rashidi,et al.  Effect of non-uniform magnetic field on forced convection heat transfer of Fe3O4–water nanofluid , 2015 .

[16]  S. D. Pohekar,et al.  Performance enhancement in latent heat thermal storage system: A review , 2009 .

[17]  Tasawar Hayat,et al.  Free convection of magnetic nanofluid considering MFD viscosity effect , 2016 .

[18]  M. Corcione,et al.  Enhanced natural convection heat transfer of nanofluids in enclosures with two adjacent walls heated and the two opposite walls cooled , 2015 .

[19]  Mohammad Mehdi Rashidi,et al.  Ferrofluid heat transfer treatment in the presence of variable magnetic field , 2015 .

[20]  Mohammad Mehdi Rashidi,et al.  Forced convection heat transfer in a semi annulus under the influence of a variable magnetic field , 2016 .

[21]  J. Maxwell.  A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism , 1873, Nature.

[22]  Alain Sommier,et al.  Thermal management of electronic devices using carbon foam and PCM/nano-composite , 2015 .

[23]  F. L. Tan,et al.  Numerical investigations of unconstrained melting of nano-enhanced phase change material (NEPCM) inside a spherical container , 2012 .

[24]  D. Ganji,et al.  Discharging process expedition of NEPCM in fin-assisted Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage System , 2016 .

[25]  Kai Sirén,et al.  Analytical model for melting in a semi-infinite PCM storage with an internal fin , 2003 .

[26]  X. Py,et al.  Highly conductive composites made of phase change materials and graphite for thermal storage , 2008 .

[27]  Y. Xuan,et al.  Heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids , 2000 .

[28]  Jong-Ping Hsu,et al.  Thim’s experiment and exact rotational space-time transformations , 2014, 1401.8282.

[29]  K. Sopian,et al.  Internal and external fin heat transfer enhancement technique for latent heat thermal energy storage in triplex tube heat exchangers , 2013 .

[30]  T. Hayat,et al.  MHD free convection of Al2O3–water nanofluid considering thermal radiation: A numerical study , 2016 .

[31]  Ali J. Chamkha,et al.  Flow and convective heat transfer of a ferro-nanofluid in a double-sided lid-driven cavity with a wavy wall in the presence of a variable magnetic field , 2016 .

[32]  Frank P. Incropera,et al.  Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer , 1981 .