Novel Fin for Effective Heat Transfer in Shell-and-Tube Latent Heat Storage System

Due to the low thermal conductivity of phase change materials (PCMs), latent heat storage (LHS) technology has not yet commercialized to its fullest capability. Many heat transfer enhancement techniques were studied by several researchers and each of the techniques put forward has its own pros and cons. In the present study, a novel fm is proposed for effective heat transfer in shell-and-tube LHS devices. A numerical model is developed to study the performance characteristics of the proposed novel fin and to compare it with no fin and standard fm configurations. Effective heat capacity method is used to simulate the phase change mechanism. Sodium nitrate is used as the PCM and air is used as the heat transfer fluid. Performance parameters such as melt fraction and charging time are evaluated. Axial temperature variation of PCM in the LHS models is also studied.