Study of paraffin-based composite-phase change materials for a shell and tube energy storage system: A mesh adaptation approach

Energy storage systems based on phase change materials are very innovative and useful in different engineering applications. The present study deals with numerical simulation of energy transport performance in a shell and tube energy storage system, including the paraffin wax or copper foam insertion with paraffin wax. The mathematical description of the considered problem consists of the basic equations grounded on the conservation laws with appropriate initial and boundary conditions. These equations were solved by the finite element method. The developed code was verified using the mesh sensitivity analysis and numerical data of other authors. Effects of the porosity, Rayleigh number, melting temperature, heat pipes location on melting flow structures and energy transport, and Nusselt number and melting volume fraction were scrutinized for charging and discharging modes. It was found that in the case of porous metal foam, the phase change intensity increases for the mentioned two regimes in comparison with pure paraffin wax. The vertical placement of the heating tubes results in the best charging time.

Automated summary

This study focused on numerical simulation of energy transport performance in an energy storage system based on phase change materials, investigating the effects of various factors on the system. It was found that using porous metal foam can increase the phase change intensity, and vertical placement of heating tubes results in the best charging time.