Experimental Investigations on the Influence of Coil Arrangement on Melting/Solidification Processes

The latent heat thermal energy storage units are very popular because of their high energy density and almost close to constant temperature during the charging/discharging. In the present study has been proposed new shell-and-coil geometry with a shifted coil position to enhance the performance of phase change thermal magazine. The experimental investigations have been performed both for the melting and solidification process of coconut oil for constant wall temperature conditions. The experiments have been carried out for cylindrical as well as coil shape geometry of the TES unit. In the case of annular TES, the copper tube with outer diameter d = 10 mm and total length equal to 165 mm were used (4). In the case of shell-and-coil TES the coil has been also made of a copper tube but with an outer diameter d = 6 mm. The total length of the tube was 460 mm. However, the length of the tube element that has been used in the process of bending the coil had a total length equal to 360 mm. The rest of the tube was straight. The coil pitch was 15 mm and the outer coil diameter was 26 mm. The experiments have been conducted for the coil position at the top and the bottom of the tank. The results showed the influence of heat transfer geometry for phase change efficiency. The article presents the thermal characteristic of melting and solidification phenomena as well as their visual analysis. A significant impact of heat transfer geometry at the shape of the melting and solidification profile. The optimal performance has been achieved for shell-and-coil TES with a coil arranged at the top of the tank.