Design and optimization of a vertical shell-and-tube latent heat thermal energy storage system via discontinuous fins

Songzhen Tang, Yuling Song, Pinwei Liu, Xuehong Wu, Yanyan Xu, Junjie Zhou and Xiuzhen Li

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 243, issue C

Abstract: In this paper, a novel latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) system with discontinuous fins was proposed to simultaneously solve the problems of slow and uneven melting. The enthalpy-porosity method was used to investigate the melting process of paraffin in the vertical LHTES system, and the regulation mechanism of the novel fins on the melting rate and uniformity was analyzed. In addition, the effects of main fin length (L1), bifurcation angle (a) and periodic number (N) on the melting performance were examined. The results show that the main fin length and bifurcation angle have significant effects on the melting performance. When main fin length is greater than 15 mm, the effect of the bifurcation angle on the melting time is small, and the melting rate decreases with the increase of main fin length. With the larger periodic number, the melting time shows a trend of rapid decrease first and then slow decrease. Compared with longitudinal straight fins, the optimized structure (L1 = 15 mm, a = 54° and N = 10) reduced the melting time by about 31 % and 21 % at liquid phase fractions of 0.9 and 1.0, respectively, and the uniformity was significantly improved. This study provides theoretical guidance for the development of new LHTES systems.

Keywords: Thermal energy storage; Melting characteristics; Discontinuous fins; Performance enhancement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:243:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125002307

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.122568

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