Solidification in a shell-and-tube thermal energy storage unit filled with longitude fins and metal foam:A numerical study  

作　　者：Xiaohu Yang Fengfei Xu Xinyi Wang Junfei Guo Ming-Jia Li 

机构地区：[1]Institute of the Building Environment&Sustainability Technology,School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering,Xi’an Jiaotong University,Xi’an 710049,China [2]Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of Ministry of Education,School of Energy and Power Engineering,Xi’an Jiaotong University,Xi’an 710049,China [3]Shanghai Industrial Boiler(Wuxi)CO.,LTD.,Wuxi 214000,China

出　　处：《Energy and Built Environment》2023年第1期64-73,共10页能源与人工环境（英文）

基　　金：This work was supported by the National Natural Science Founda-tion of China(51976155);the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities(xtr042019019).The author(Xiaohu Yang)gratefully ac-knowledged the support of K.C.Wong Education Foundation.

摘　　要：In this study,an innovative thermal energy storage design method was developed by adding the combination of metal foam and fin to phase change materials(PCMs).A numerical model was built and verified based on the comparison among the present model prediction,experimental measurements,and numerical results in open lit-erature.To highlight the novel design method,four cases including fin-PCM,foam-PCM,fin-foam-PCM,and PCM unit were compared by means of solidification features.The temperature distribution,solidification front propa-gation,and buoyancy-induced convection in the liquid PCM were accounted for.Numerical results demonstrated that metal foam outperformed fin regarding the improvement on solidification phase change.The combination of foam and fin achieved the best performance,leading to a 90.5%reduction in complete energy release time in comparison with the PCM unit.The proposed design method provided reference potentials for advancing energy storage engineering.However,buoyancy-induced convection in the liquid PCM before solidification was harmful to the formation of solidification front and its movement.A maximal 11.5%prolonging time for the complete solidification was found.

关 键 词：Thermal energy storage Phase change materials Metal foam Shell and tube heat exchanger SOLIDIFICATION 

分 类 号：TU564[建筑科学—建筑技术科学] TU531.1