A latent heat accumulator unit in the shape of a horizontal Shell-and-Tube (S-T) configuration with novel longitudinal branched Fins was numerically studied. First, the numerical results have been validated with available experimental data of a horizontal S-T accumulator unit without fins. The results show agreement with experimental data. The numerical results are based on a 2D simulation performed using ANSYS FLUENT software. The horizontal S-T accumulator unit is investigated in two physical designs: (1) horizontal S-T accumulator with 6 longitudinal fins, and (2) horizontal S-T accumulator with novel longitudinal branching fins. The paraffin wax is utilized as the phase change material (PCM). The selected PCM is used to fill the annular space of the proposed accumulator unit. The temperature of the inner tube wall is kept constant to represent the heat transfer fluid (HTF) temperature. Also, this temperature was set to 358 K (85 °C) during charging and 301 K (28 °C) during the discharging. The thermal performance of the charging and discharging processes for two-physical designs was explained. The results show that the PCM takes about 110 minutes to be completely melted and 250 minutes to be completely solidified for a horizontal S-T accumulator with 6 longitudinal fins. For horizontal S-T accumulator with novel longitudinal branching fins, the PCM takes about 55 minutes to be completely melted and 80 minutes to be completely solidified. The results indicated that using novel branched longitudinal fins enhances heat transfer. Furthermore, it is observed that the novel fins lead to a significant reduction in the solidification and the melting times by about 68 % and 50% respectively, in contrast with the ordinary longitudinal fins.
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Amer et al. (2023) studied this question.