Enhancement of solidification rate of latent heat thermal energy storage using corrugated fins

Abstract

Abstract Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) is considered one of the most promising thermal energy storage technologies. The main disadvantage of LHTES is the low thermal conductivity of the phase change material (PCM). Finned tubes are commonly used to improve heat transfer in LHTES. This study aims to gain a better understanding of how curving or branching the fins affects the fins’ performance and effectiveness. This paper investigates the use of longitudinal corrugated fins in enhancing the solidification rate of the PCM located in the annular area between two concentric tubes. The impact of both the number of corrugations per fin and the corrugation height was investigated using numerical modeling. The results showed that the novel corrugated fin configurations reduced the solidification time compared to straight fins due to the increase of the fins length. However, the effectiveness of the corrugated fins was generally lower than that of straight fins.