A numerical investigation of the increase in heat transfer in a half-cylindrical container filled with phase change copper rods

Abstract

Phase change materials (PCMs) are capable of storing and removing a significant quantity of latent heat from heating storage systems. PCMs such as paraffin wax are used because they store a large amount of energy in a relatively small space while maintaining a nearly constant temperature between solidification and melting. An investigation into the numerical effects of increases in heat transmission to paraffin wax (RT58), within a half-cylindrical cell which included a range of copper rods, was conducted to determine their impact. The enthalpy-porosity combination program ANSYS/FLUENT 16, was used in this study to ascertain levels of heat transmission that occur when varying numbers of copper rods are inserted in the container, as well as the impact this has on melting time. The findings show that increasing the number of rods results in a decrease in melting time. When comparing cells with three and five copper rods against a cell with no rods, the melting time is reduced by 45% and 52%, respectively. The findings of this research can benefit thermal energy storage applications such as cooling microelectronic devices, and storing and discharging thermal energy.