Effects of the number and distribution of fins on the storage characteristics of a cylindrical latent heat energy storage system: a numerical study

A numerical study of the effects of the number and distribution of fins 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 increasing the number and distribution of fins on the melting rate of the PCM were studied for configurations having between 0 and 27 fins for heat transfer fluid (HTF) velocities of 0.05 and 0.5?m/s. Results show that the overall heat transfer rate to the PCM increases with an increase in the number of fins irrespective of the HTF velocity. It was also observed that the total amount of energy stored after 12?h increases nearly linearly with the addition of fins up to 12 fins; further addition of fins increasing the total energy stored by ever smaller amounts.     

Shell-and-tube type latent heat thermal energy storage: numerical analysis and comparison with experiments

The melting process of industrial grade paraffin wax inside a shell-and-tube storage is analyzed by means of numerical simulation and experimental results. For this purpose, the enthalpy porosity method is extended by a continuous liquid fraction function. The extended method is tested using results gained from a gallium melt test inside a rectangular enclosure.     

A numerical study of heat transfer during flow of melt in a cylindrical mould

A numerical analysis of transient heat transfer during the flow of a melt in a cylindrical mould is presented. The analysis includes thermal resistance at the melt-mould interface, and axial conduction inside both melt and mould. Energy equations are formulated in a domain that expands continuously due to the advance of the melt inside the empty mould, and solved by the finite difference method using a time-stepping procedure. Calculations are compared to existing analytic results. It is found that axial conduction in the melt can significantly influence the rate of heat loss from the flowing melt, and that analytic approximations, which neglect axial conduction, may give erroneous predictions for the rate of heat loss.     

Experiments on thermal characteristics of a natural circulation loop with latent heat energy storage under cyclic pulsed heat load

 An experimental investigation has been made of thermal characteristics of a rectangular, annular single-phase natural circulation loop with the inner tube filled with a solid–liquid phase change material (PCM) under cyclic pulsating heat load. A rectangular, annular loop of 150 cm in height and 75 cm in width was constructed with an annular gap of 0.6 cm, within which water was filled. The inner tube of the annular loop was filled with a PCM (n-Eicosene) or air. Under the cyclic pulsating heat load, temperature field within the water-filled annular loop with PCM- or air-filled inner tube was found to evolve into a steady periodic variation for the range of parameters considered. The water temperature and/or its fluctuating amplitude along the heated or cooled sections of the loop with the PCM-filled inner tube were found to be markedly lower than those measured in the loop with the air-filled inner tube under the identical conditions. On the other hand, along the insulated sections of the loop a somewhat minute difference in temporal variations of the water temperatures exists between the loops with PCM- and air-filled inner tube. In addition, at the outer wall along the cooled section, a time-periodic variation of temperature was detected in synchronizing with the pulsating heat load. Parametric effects of varying amplitude and time-period of the pulsating heat input, as well as of varying the inlet coolant temperature of the cooling jacket were investigated. Received on 30 June 2000 The authors are grateful for the support for this study from National Science Council of Republic of China in Taiwan under the Project Nos. NSC87-2212-E006-054 and NSC88-2212-E006-022.     

Effect of porosity and the inlet heat transfer fluid temperature variation on the performance of cool thermal energy storage system

This paper discusses the results of numerical and experimental study of an encapsulated cool thermal energy storage system. The storage system is a cylindrical storage tank filled with phase change material encapsulated in spherical container, placed in a refrigeration loop. A simulation program was developed to evaluate the temperature histories of the heat transfer fluid and the phase change material at any axial location during the charging period. The present analysis aims at studying the influence of the inlet heat transfer fluid temperature and porosity on system performance. An experimental setup was designed and constructed to conduct the experiments. The results of the model were validated by comparison with experimental results of temperature profiles for different inlet heat transfer fluid temperatures and porosity. The results are in good agreement with the experimental results. The results reported are much useful for designing cool thermal energy storage systems.     

Convective heat transfer in a rotating horizontal cylindrical fluid layer

This paper describes the thermal convection and heat transfer in a cylindrical fluid layer rotating around a horizontal axis, with various constant temperatures set at the layer boundaries. The influence of the rotational speed of the cylindrical fluid layer on the convective heat transfer in this layer is studied. The study results are presented as functions of dimensionless parameters that characterize the action of two convective mechanisms: centrifugal and thermal-oscillatory. It is shown that, with low rotational speed, the heat transfer is determined by quasistationary gravitational convection.     

Effect of cavity aspect ratio on flow and heat transfer characteristics in pipes: a numerical study

Using the standard k–ε turbulence model, a two-dimensional turbulent pipe flow was simulated with and without square cavities. Effect of cavity aspect ratio on flow and heat transfer characteristics was investigated. Uncertainty was approximated through experimental validation and grid independence. The simulation revealed circulation inside the cavities. Cavity boundaries were shown to contribute significantly toward turbulence production. Cavity presence was shown to enhance overall heat transfer through the wall, while increasing pressure drop significantly across the pipe. It was predicted that cavities with higher aspect ratio enhance heat transfer more while increasing pressure drop.     

Effects of velocity fluctuations on heat transfer enhancement

The three-dimensional velocity fluctuation effects on heat transfer enhancement were experimentally investigated using a wind tunnel system and cylinders placed upstream of the test section in the wind tunnel. The cylinders with different diameters were used as turbulators to generate vortical flow motions with three-dimensional velocity fluctuations. A heated plate, part of the tunnel wall, was placed far downstream of the cylinders such that it was subjected mainly to flows with velocity fluctuations but with negligible steady vortical motions. These studies included three-component velocity measurements to characterize the near-wall and cross-section velocity fields and to obtain the turbulent kinetic energy. The temperatures were measured by thermocouples on the heated plate to obtain the convection heat transfer coefficients and the Nusselt numbers. Results indicate that the heat transfer was enhanced by the velocity fluctuations, which is attributed to the modification of boundary layer velocity profiles without the modification of boundary layer thickness. The resulting normalized Nusselt number was approximately a parabolic function of a dimensionless parameter, the product of Reynolds number and normalized turbulent kinetic energy.     

3D numerical simulation on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in multistage heat exchanger with slit fins

In this paper, a numerical investigation is performed for three-stage heat exchangers with plain plate fins and slit fins respectively, with a three-dimensional laminar conjugated model. The tubes are arranged in a staggered way, and heat conduction in fins is considered. In order to save the computer resource and speed up the numerical simulation, the numerical modeling is carried out stage by stage. In order to avoid the large pressure drop penalty in enhancing heat transfer, a slit fin is presented with the strip arrangement of “front coarse and rear dense” along the flow direction. The numerical simulation shows that, compared to the plain plate fin heat exchanger, the increase in the heat transfer in the slit fin heat exchanger is higher than that of the pressure drop, which proves the excellent performance of this slit fin. The fluid flow and heat transfer performance along the stages is also provided.     

Experimental and numerical study on flow characteristics and heat transfer of an oscillating jet in a channel

A fluidic oscillator can produce self-induced and self-sustaining oscillating jet by fluid supply without moving parts. This device has attracted research interest in heat and mass transfer enhancement in recent years. In the current study, a double-feedback fluidic oscillator was numerically investigated based on three-dimensional unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (3D-URANS) while the operating fluid is an incompressible flow. Then, the results were validated with experimental data by two-dimensional time-resolved particle image velocimetry (2D-TR-PIV) and thermographic phosphor thermometry (TPT) for the velocity and temperature field, respectively. A grid sensitivity study was done by comparison of instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields. Additionally, the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method was used to find the phase information of the oscillating jet, and fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis was used to find the frequency of the oscillating jet to validate the numerical results. The effect of the working fluid was also studied. Finally, in order to determine the effect of the Reynolds number on heat transfer enhancement, the Q-criterion was calculated to provide detailed insight into the oscillating mechanism. The results show that the non-dimensional frequency of oscillation is independent of either the working fluid or mass flow rate. Additionally, for a given fluid, increasing Re causes strong vortices and increases the frequency of oscillation. However, the convection heat transfer did not change significantly when varying the mass flow rate because the convection velocity of vortices increases as the mass flow rate is enhanced. A comparison with a free jet reveals that the oscillating jet in a channel is useful in terms of covering a larger area.     

Newtonian and Shear-thinning Taylor flow heat transfer in wavy micro-tubes: a numerical study

Meccanica - In the present study, the two-phase gas–liquid convective heat transfer is numerically studied inside uniformly heated wavy micro-tubes in the Taylor flow regime. Both Newtonian...     

Numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics inside a wavy channel

The periodically fully developed laminar heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics inside a two-dimensional wavy channel in a compact heat exchanger have been numerically investigated. Calculations were performed for Prandtl number 0.7, and Reynolds number ranging from 100 to 1,100 on non-orthogonal non-staggered grid systems, based on SIMPLER algorithm in the curvilinear body-fitted coordinates. Effects of wavy heights, lengths, wavy pitches and channel widths on fluid flow and heat transfer were studied. The results show that overall Nusselt numbers and friction factors increase with the increase of Reynolds numbers. According to the local Nusselt number distribution along channel wall, the heat transfer may be greatly enhanced due to the wavy characteristics. In the geometries parameters considered, friction factors and overall Nusselt number always increase with the increase of wavy heights or channel widths, and with the decrease of wavy lengths or wavy pitches. Especially the overall Nusselt number significantly increase with the increase of wavy heights or channel widths, where the flow may become into transition regime with a penalty of strongly increasing in pressure drop. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Measurements of the gas-particle convective heat transfer coefficient in a packed bed for high-temperature energy storage

Experimental measurements of the forced convection gas-particle heat transfer coefficient in a packed bed, high-temperature, thermal energy storage system were performed using a custom-made experimental facility. Special attention was paid to the application of uncertainty analysis (a very important concept in experimentation). General and detailed uncertainty analyses were carried out, which identified the choices that were made in the experimental planning and procedure to ensure reliable final results. The experimental data reduction program used the governing equations and the results of the uncertainty analysis while making allowance for media property variations with temperature. Results were correlated in terms of Nusselt number, Prandtl number and Reynolds number and comparisons were made with existing correlations developed with similar storage media. The maximum temperature for the bed was about 1000°C (1830°F) with flue gas as the operating fluid in the storage mode and atmospheric air in the recovery mode. Because most related previous studies were not necessarily focused on high-temperature applications, the published gas-particle heat transfer correlations were obtained at relatively low temperature ranges, generally at room temperature or at temperatures slightly above room temperature. Moreover, only a few of the previously reported correlations associated the results with the corresponding uncertainty margins. The results from this study give a convective gas-particle heat transfer correlation for high-temperature thermal energy storage applications. Also, due to substantial uncertainties normally associated with the measurements of this heat transfer coefficient, it is significant to note that no firm conclusions can be reached on the validity or non-validity of previously reported related correlations for which the uncertainty margins were not reported.     

Experimental study on forced convection heat transfer characteristics in a converging diverging heat exchanger channel

The convective heat transfer characteristics in a periodic converging–diverging heat exchanger channel are investigated experimentally. Experiments were performed for Prandtl number 0.7, for corrugation angle of 30°. In order to determine the channel having the best performance, the channels also compared by considering the flow area goodness factor.     

Numerical study of the flow and heat transfer in a Reiner-Rivlin fluid on a rotating porous disk

An unsteady flow and heat transfer to an infinite porous disk rotating in a Reiner—Rivlin non-Newtonian fluid are considered. The effect of the non-Newtonian fluid characteristics and injection (suction) through the disk surface on velocity and temperature distributions and heat transfer is considered. Numerical solutions are obtained over the entire range of the governing parameters.Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 85–95, January–February, 2005.