Accelerating the charging process in a shell and dual coil ice storage unit equipped with connecting plates

Frequent power outage in developing countries has created many problems for the people living in these regions, one of the most important of which is food spoilage due to the rise of refrigerator temperature. Ice storage systems are one of the promising techniques for handling this difficulty. Computational simulations are done here to influence the effects of dimensionless parameters on the charging rate of a shell and dual coil ice storage unit equipped with connecting plates as heat transfer enhancers. The ice storage unit is intended to be used as a backup cooling source for refrigerators in these regions. The studied parameters include the helical pitch length/storage height ratio (alpha(1)), the helical coil distance/storage diameter ratio (alpha(2)), the helical coil diameter/storage diameter ratio (alpha(3)), the connecting plate length/storage height ratio (alpha(4)), the connecting plate thickness/tube diameter ratio (alpha(5)), the modified Stefan number of the refrigerant flow (Ste*), and refrigerant flow Reynolds number (Re). The results suggest that the geometrical optimization of the proposed ice storage with alpha(1), alpha(2), and alpha(3) parameters can improve the charging process up to 16.69%, 7.25%, and 18.84%, respectively. Also, the presence of full-length connecting plates can enhance the charging rate by up to 12%. While the influence of the Ste* on the charging rate is considerably high (25.56%), the Re does not exhibit a noticeable effect (0.95%). Moreover, the influence of natural convection on the process was considered, however, it was found that it does not have a considerable effect on the ice formation.