Numerical Study of the Thermal Energy Storage Container Shape Impact on the NePCM Melting Process

Obai Younis (), Naef A. A. Qasem, Aissa Abderrahmane and Abdeldjalil Belazreg
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Obai Younis: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering in Wadi Alddawasir, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
Naef A. A. Qasem: Department of Aerospace Engineering and Interdisciplinary Research Center for Aviation and Space Exploration, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Aissa Abderrahmane: Laboratory of Quantum Physics of Matter and Modeling Mathematics (LPQ3M), University of Mustapha Stambouli of Mascara, Mascara 29000, Algeria
Abdeldjalil Belazreg: Laboratory of Quantum Physics of Matter and Modeling Mathematics (LPQ3M), University of Mustapha Stambouli of Mascara, Mascara 29000, Algeria

Mathematics, 2024, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-20

Abstract: Recently, thermal energy storage has emerged as one of the alternative solutions to increase energy efficiency. The geometry of a thermal energy storage container holds a significant role in increasing the heat transmission rates in the container. In this article, we examined the influence of the inner and outer tube shapes of a shell and tube LHTES on the thermal activity within the system. The gap between the inner and outer tube is loaded with nano-enhanced phase change material (NePCM); hot fluid is passed through the inner tube while the outer tube is insulated. COMSOL commercial software (version 6.2) was used to numerically simulate the NePCM melting process. Mainly, six different geometries were investigated with inner or outer tubes with trefoil, cinquefoil, and heptafoil shapes. The influences of nanoparticles volumetric fraction (ϕ = 0–8%) were also discussed. The findings are displayed and discussed in terms of the average Nusselt number, the average liquid fraction, the total energy generation, and the average temperature. The findings showed that the melting process is highly affected by the shape of the inner tube and ϕ, while the outer tube shape impact is less important. It was noticed that employing an inner tube with a trefoil improved the melting process by more than 25% while increasing the ϕ from 0 to 8% resulted in reducing the melting time by up to 20%.

Keywords: LHTES; NePCM; container shape; melting process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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