Numerical study of thermal performance of a PCM in a modifying tube-bundle latent heat thermal storage

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to numerically investigate the thermal performance of a newly designed modifying tube-bundle Latent Heat Thermal Storage (LHTS). The new LHTS design proposed a half-cylindrical tube attached to the Heat Transfer Fluid tube, which implies making the PCM indirect contact with the HTF tube. This reduces the heat transfer resistance by eliminating the metal construction of the tubes. For this purpose, a 3D numerical model was developed based on mass, momentum and energy conservations using ANSYS Fluent software. After validating the model developed by comparing numerical results with those obtained experimentally by a published study, the PCM liquid fraction and amount of power stored during the melting and solidification were studied. Water and lauric acid as a working fluid and PCM were implemented in the model. In addition, three different Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) inlet temperatures