Numerical Investigation of PCM Melting in a Finned Tube Thermal Storage

Abstract

Due to their high energy storage capacity, latent heat storage units using phase change materials (PCMs) have gained considerable attention over the past three decades. The heat exchange of a PCM with the surrounding medium is managed by the thermal energy equation (solidification/melting) with different complex boundary and initial conditions. In this study, we propose to solve numerically this equation applied to a PCM by the finite difference method. To understand the storage phenomenon of solar energy in the form of latent heat in PCM, initially found under cooling at 18 (cid:1) C, we studied the fusion in a specific configuration corresponding to a tubular exchanger with five circular horizontal fins. In this perspective, we propose in this work a numerical investigation based on an enthalpy formulation to study the melting of a PCM in a finned heat exchanger. This numerical approach gives simultaneously the temperature distributions in the PCM storage system and temporal propagation of the melting front during the melting of the PCM when it is exposed to a hot airflow. Also, we give in this study the transient evolution of the longitudinal air temperature profiles.