Thermal Performance of a PCM-Based Thermal Energy Storage with Metal Foam Enhancement

Chen, Xue; Li, Xiaolei; Xia, Xin‐Lin; Sun, Chuang; Liu, Rongqiang

doi:10.3390/en12173275

Cited by 28 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…One of the most important weaknesses of PCMs is their low thermal conductivity that affects their function in energy storage devices in terms of rate of thermal charging and discharging. As extensively studied before [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], application of extended surfaces such as fins is one of the methods that can address this problem. The thermal conductivity of metal fins is far higher than PCMs that help increase the heat transfer rate between the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and the PCM.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Fin Parameters on the Solidification of PCMs in a Fin-Enhanced Thermal Energy Storage System

et al. 2020

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In the present study, a triplex-tube, employing fin-enhanced phase change materials (PCMs), as a thermal energy storage (TES) system was studied numerically. The main flaw of the PCMs is their low thermal conductivity that restricts their effectiveness for energy storage applications. Metallic (copper) fins are added to the geometry of the system to improve their function by extending the heat transfer area. The effects of the presence, configuration, and dimensions of copper fins were investigated to understand the best design for minimizing the solidification time and achieving the best performance enhancement for the TES system selected for this study. The results revealed that the best performance belonged to fins with a mix configuration, with an attachment angle of 90° and the length and width of 28 mm and 1 mm, respectively. Using this configuration could reduce the required time for complete solidification by around 42% compared to the system without fins. Moreover, it was concluded that increasing the length of the fin could offer its positive effect for enhancing the performance of TES system up to an optimal point only while increasing the width showed a diverse influence. Furthermore, the angles between the tube surface and the fin direction were investigated and 90° was found to be the best choice for the TES case selected in this study. In addition, placement of the fins on the surface of internal or external tube or mix method did not show a significant effect while placing the fins on the external surface of the tube showed even a negative impact on the performance of the TES system compared with when no fins were applied.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Fin Parameters on the Solidification of PCMs in a Fin-Enhanced Thermal Energy Storage System

et al. 2020

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“…The energy balance and temperature continuity at the interface are: In order to overcome the relatively small thermal conductivity of most of the common phase change materials, the PCM was assumed to be embedded within a porous solid matrix, such as metal foams and expanded graphite, for enhanced heat transfer. Such high conductivity porous solid matrices have attracted widespread interest in PCM applications due to their significant impact on increasing the heat transfer rates [17,18]. It has been well established that the presence of the solid foams effectively suppresses the natural convection within the melt and leads to a conduction-controlled melting [19][20][21].…”

Section: Mathematical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Substituting Equations (11), (18), and (19) into Equation (29), a quadratic function of A and B could be obtained:…”

Section: Mathematical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Integral Solution of Two-Region Solid–Liquid Phase Change in Annular Geometries and Application to Phase Change Materials–Air Heat Exchangers

2019

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A mathematical model based on the integral method is developed to solve the problem of conduction-controlled solid–liquid phase change in annular geometries with temperature gradients in both phases. The inner and outer boundaries of the annulus were subject to convective, constant temperature or adiabatic boundary conditions. The developed model was validated by comparison with control volume-based computational results using the temperature-transforming phase change model, and an excellent agreement was achieved. The model was used to conduct parametric studies on the effect of annuli geometry, thermophysical properties of the phase change materials (PCM), and thermal boundary conditions on the dynamics of phase change. For an initially liquid PCM, it was found that increasing the radii ratio increased the total solidification time. Also, increasing the Biot number at the cooled (heated) boundary and Stefan number of the solid (liquid) PCM, decreased (increased) the solidification time and resulted in a greater (smaller) solid volume fraction at steady state. The application of the developed method was demonstrated by design and analysis of a PCM–air heat exchanger for HVAC systems. The model can also be easily employed for design and optimization of annular PCM systems for all associated applications in a fraction of time needed for computational simulations.

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“…All of these features make the metal foam suitable as filter media. Therefore, metal foams have been extensively used in engineered applications [3][4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Efficient Numerical Method for Pressure Loss Investigation in an Oil/Air Separator with Metal Foam in an Aero-Engine

Zhang

Liu

2020

Energies

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An efficient method of simulating pressure loss in a separator with metal foam is reported. In this method, a metal foam is modeled as a porous media having homogenized permeability and inertial resistance coefficients. The permeability and inertial resistance coefficients were obtained by a numerical method that was validated by experimental data from a literature. Then the pressure drop in the separator with metal foam replaced by porous media was efficiently simulated under different working conditions, and the results were analyzed. It was found that the porous media had a great effect on the pressure drop in the separator. As pores per inch (PPI) and rotating speed increase and porosity decreases, the pressure drop of the separator increases. The results indicate that replacing metal foam by porous media is effective and simulating the pressure drop is feasible and effective in a separator with metal foam.

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Thermal Performance of a PCM-Based Thermal Energy Storage with Metal Foam Enhancement

Cited by 28 publications

References 31 publications

The Effects of Fin Parameters on the Solidification of PCMs in a Fin-Enhanced Thermal Energy Storage System

The Effects of Fin Parameters on the Solidification of PCMs in a Fin-Enhanced Thermal Energy Storage System

Integral Solution of Two-Region Solid–Liquid Phase Change in Annular Geometries and Application to Phase Change Materials–Air Heat Exchangers

An Efficient Numerical Method for Pressure Loss Investigation in an Oil/Air Separator with Metal Foam in an Aero-Engine

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