Thermal Performance Enhancement With Melting Effect of Nickel Foam and MXene Nano-Enhanced Phase Change Material Composite-Based Thermal Energy Storages

This research explores the numerical investigation of melting processes in duplex andtriplex tube latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems utilizing phase changematerial (PCM) enhanced with nickel foam and MXene nanoparticles. By incorporatinga nickel foam/PCM/MXene (5% v/v) composite, the research scrutinizes the effects onmelting characteristics, Stefan and Fourier numbers, and thermal behavior of bothduplex tube thermal energy storage (DuT-TES) and triplex tube thermal energy storage(TrT-TES) configurations. A comprehensive analysis encompassing liquid fraction,melting temperature contours across varying melting durations, exergy destruction, exer-getic efficiency, system efficiency, and the stored energy is conducted. Thefindings indicatethat systems employing nickel foam/PCM-MXene composite exhibit superior performancecompared to those utilizing nickel foam/PCM or pure PCM, resulting in a notable reductionin melting time. Furthermore, it is observed that the stored exergy of nickel foam/PCM com-posite surpasses that of pure cetyl alcohol PCM. In TrT-TES systems, melting with nickelfoam/PCM composite occurs 58.82% faster than in DuT-TES systems. The stored energyof TrT-TES employing nickel foam/PCM and nickel foam/PCM/MXene composite is4.55% and 3.69% greater, respectively, than that of DuT-TES systems. DuT-TES withnickel foam/PCM/MXene also achieves a 44.86% higher system efficiency at 90 s thannickel foam/PCM. Notably, the melting process with nickel foam/PCM/MXene in TrT-TES occurs 60.26% faster than in DuT-TES. Consequently, TrT-TES systems employingnickel foam/PCM/MXene composite demonstrate superior potential for latent heatthermal storage compared to DuT-TES systems