Investigation of thermal performance of a shell and tube latent heat thermal energy storage tank in the presence of different nano-enhanced PCMs

Thermal energy storage is crucial for the sustainability of an energy supply system. One of the best thermal energy storage systems is latent heat thermal energy storage tanks. In the present study, a shell and tube heat storage tank is simulated based on computational fluid dynamics. The tank consists of 18 hot and cold tubes and the space between them is filled with paraffin as a phase change material (PCM). The effects of adding SWCNT and GNP nanoparticles are evaluated on the PCM in different heat fluxes. The simulation is implemented by developing the C++ code in OpenFOAM software, and the solution is performed with the PIMPLE algorithm and finite volume method. Results reveal that the melting volume ratio of the PCMs is independent of the inlet heat flux, and increasing the inlet heat flux only accelerates the melting process. Adding SWCNT to the paraffin reduced the melting time by 43% and stored 147% more latent heat energy in comparison to pure paraffin.