Transient numerical study on enhancement of phase change material thermal storage with angled parallel fins

Abstract

We present numerical investigations on a thermal energy stor- age (TES) system using organic phase change materials (PCMs) of RT42 for energy recovery from a heat source. To enhance the heat transfer rate, five types of parallel fins with different oblique angles of 0◦, ±15◦ and ±30◦ are proposed. A transient numeri- cal model is developed to simulate the PCM melting process with considering natural convection. The simulation settings are well validated by the experimental tests. The contours of melting frac- tion with natural convection driven flow are clearly performed and compared. The level of enhancement is determined by the average melting fraction of PCM domain varying with time. The angled fins show better performance than the ‘No Fin’ one. En- hancement ratio is also introduced to qualify the oblique angle effect. Results indicate that PCMs with −15◦ fins melt faster than the other types and has a maximum 10% improvement on the basic case of ‘No Fin’. As the angle of fins increases to −30◦ or +30◦, the enhancement decreases.