NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM IN THE PRESENCE OF MAGNETIC FIELD GENERATED BY A CYLINDRICAL MAGNET

In this study, a radially magnetized cylindrical magnet has been used to reduce the required time for full charging (melting) and discharging (solidification) processes in a shell-and-tube latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) system. A transient three-dimensional CFD simulation is employed to explore the effects of different magnetic field intensities and different inlet heat transfer fluid (HTF) temperatures on the charging and discharging performances using the control volume technique. In addition, the enthalpy-porosity has been used to model the phase change material (PCM) solidification/melting process. The used nanoparticle-enhanced phase change material (NEPCM) consists of a PCM (RT50) as the base material and Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The results show that the required time for complete solidification and melting processes decreases by applying the magnetic field (MF). Furthermore, shorter charging and discharging times are the result of increase in the strength of the MF. For instance, the melting time and solidification time decrease by applying MF with the intensity of Mn = 1018e6 by 63.44% and 21.67%, respectively.