Enhancement of energy storage capability in RT82 phase change material using strips fins and metal-oxide based nanoparticles

Energy storage is one of the most vital needs in energy industry such as solar energy systems. Thermal energy storage using Phase Change Material (PCM) are widely used in the research and industrial levels. The present paper investigates the improvement of the melting time of phase change material (RT82) by using discretized strips fins instead of the traditionally longitudinal fins. Additionally, the effects of adding nanoparticles to the PCM on the improvement of the melting time is assessed. The SIMPLE algorithm is utilized for pressure-velocity coupling to solve the numerical problems of this study. The PRESTO method is used for the discretization of the pressure equation and the QUICK method is used for energy and momentum equations. For model validation and comparison with previous, the percentages of occupied volume by fins and nanoparticles are chosen in the present study to be equal to the ones used in previous experimental studies. The results show that using 2% and 4% strips fins improves the melting time up to 56% and 54% and up to 83% and 89% comparing to the two case of using longitudinal fins with the same fins volume and the no fins case, respectively. Also, the results show that using combination of nanoparticles with strips fins significantly affect the melting time significantly comparing to the case of using nanoparticles with longitudinal fins. Moreover, the results prove that the applications of nanoparticles alone do not lead to substantial improvements (19.5%) compared to the case of using longitudinal and strips fins (76% and 89%).