Study on the Enhancement of Heat Transfer Characteristics in Phase Change Process

Abstract

The effect of adding fins on heat transfer rate of phase change heat storage unit was studied by numerical simulation. Different operating conditions were designed to compare the effects of the number, height and thickness of fins on enhanced heat transfer. The heat storage device is placed vertically with a 500*50*10 mm model, the inlet temperature of the thermal fluid is 373.15 K, and the flow velocity is 0.4 m/s. The optimal heat transfer rate can be determined by monitoring the liquid proportion curve over time and comparing the melting cloud image. The results show that increasing the number of fins can effectively improve the heat transfer efficiency. The 4 mm is the optimal choice for the height and thickness of the fins.