Effects of the heat transfer fluid velocity on the storage characteristics of a cylindrical latent heat energy storage system: a numerical study |
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Authors: | Wilson Ogoh Dominic Groulx |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dalhousie University, PO Box 1000, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada; |
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Abstract: | A numerical study of the effects of the thermal fluid velocity on the storage characteristics of a cylindrical latent heat
energy storage system (LHESS) was conducted. Due to the low thermal conductivity of phase change materials (PCMs) used in
LHESS, fins were added to the system to increase the rate of heat transfer and charging. Finite elements were used to implement
the developed numerical method needed to study and solve for the phase change heat transfer (melting of PCM) encountered in
a LHESS during charging. The effective heat capacity method was applied in order to account for the large amount of latent
energy stored during melting of the PCM and the moving interface between the solid and liquid phases. The effects of the heat
transfer fluid (HTF) velocity on the melting rate of the PCM were studied for configurations having between 0 and 18 fins.
Results show that the overall heat transfer rate to the PCM increases with an increase in the HTF velocity. However, the effect
of the HTF velocity was observed to be small in configurations having very few fins, owing to the large residual thermal resistance
offered by the PCM. However, the effect of the HTF velocity becomes more pronounced with addition of fins; since the thermal
resistance on the PCM side of the LHESS is significantly reduce by the large number of fins in the system. |
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