Influence of geometrical parameters arrangement on solidification process of ice-on-coil storage system

Abstract

Ice storage systems are one kind of thermal (cold) storage systems which by shifting the usage from high to low load hours (midnight or morning), balances the period of consumption. In the present investigation, the solidification process is studied in an ice storage system. The considered system is the ice-on-coil type which the ice is formed around the cold wall of coils. The considered ice storage system is a two dimensional square shell and different numbers of heat transfer fluid tubes. Two-dimensional transient numerical simulations are performed by ANSYS FLUENT 18.2. The influences of the tube diameter and number and the arrangement of the tubes on the solidification process are evaluated. Three different tube diameters, including 12, 18, and 24 mm are considered. Also, two different arrangements of tubes, including in-line and triangular arrangements are studied. Results indicate that as the diameter of the tubes decreases or the number of tubes increases at constant mass flowrate of the heat transfer fluid, ice formation speeds up. Also, the triangular arrangement as a staggered arrangement results in faster ice formation in comparison with the in-line arrangement. As a result, an accepted correlation for liquid fraction is presented between the numerical results and predicted values as a function of tube diameter and melting time.