Improving the Thermal Storage System (LHTES): A theoretical and experimental study

Abstract

The research aims to enhance the thermal efficiency of a thermal storage system by altering the geometric shapes of the inner tube through theoretical and experimental studies. Six inner tube forms were selected: Pentagonal, hexagonal, square, rectangular, circular, and elliptical, all with the same outside surface area. Paraffin wax, a phase transition substance, is deposited in the shell, while water, a Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF), flows through the inner tube at a rate of two liters per minute. A 3D simulation was performed using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS Fluent 2020 R2 for all chosen geometric shapes. The findings suggest that the circular tube outperformed the other forms examined in terms of absorbing heat from the PCM through the HTF.