Solidification in a shell-and-tube thermal energy storage unit filled with longitude fins and metal foam: A numerical study

被引：1

作者：

Yang, Xiaohu ^{[1
,2
]}

Xu, Fengfei ^{[1
,3
]}

Wang, Xinyi ^{[1
]}

Guo, Junfei ^{[1
]}

Li, Ming-Jia ^{[2
]}

机构：

[1] Institute of the Building Environment & Sustainability Technology, School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an,710049, China

[2] Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an,710049, China

[3] Shanghai Industrial Boiler (Wuxi) CO., LTD., Wuxi,214000, China

来源：

Energy and Built Environment | 2023年 / 4卷 / 01期

基金：

中国国家自然科学基金;

关键词：

Buoyancy - Design - Fins (heat exchange) - Heat storage - Metal foams - Metals - Numerical models - Solidification - Storage (materials) - Thermal energy;

D O I：

10.1016/j.enbenv.2021.08.002

中图分类号：

学科分类号：

摘要：

In this study, an innovative thermal energy storage design method was developed by adding the combination of metal foam and fin to phase change materials (PCMs). A numerical model was built and verified based on the comparison among the present model prediction, experimental measurements, and numerical results in open literature. To highlight the novel design method, four cases including fin-PCM, foam-PCM, fin-foam-PCM, and PCM unit were compared by means of solidification features. The temperature distribution, solidification front propagation, and buoyancy-induced convection in the liquid PCM were accounted for. Numerical results demonstrated that metal foam outperformed fin regarding the improvement on solidification phase change. The combination of foam and fin achieved the best performance, leading to a 90.5% reduction in complete energy release time in comparison with the PCM unit. The proposed design method provided reference potentials for advancing energy storage engineering. However, buoyancy-induced convection in the liquid PCM before solidification was harmful to the formation of solidification front and its movement. A maximal 11.5% prolonging time for the complete solidification was found. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

引用

页码：64 / 73