Abstract
In previous studies, conventional conical structures fail to eliminate the bottom hard-to-melt zone, and assessment of the full cycle thermal performance of melting and solidification processes is lacking. The combination of the improved conical inner tube configuration with the reverse technique has not been reported. Given this, an improved conical inner tube configuration is proposed in this paper to improve melting performance. A two-dimensional numerical model of a thermal energy storage unit with an improved conical inner tube is established. The melting and solidification processes of phase change materials (PCMs) in the unit are numerically simulated to reveal its heat transfer and flow characteristics, and effects of the dimensionless bottom annular distance Sb' and the dimensionless tilt height Ht' of the configuration on the thermal characteristics are emphatically investigated. The results show that the utilization of the improved design effectively promotes the melting rate. However, it deteriorates the heat transfer performance of the solidification process. Therefore, the reverse technique (180° rotation) is adopted to improve the solidification rate. Results indicate that the solidification time of PCMs is remarkably reduced after the reverse layout, with a maximum reduction of 42.63% compared with configurations without reverse. The mode, the improved conical inner tube configuration with reverse layout, is suitable for scenarios where rapid charging is required through full-cycle thermal analysis.
Published Version
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