Investigations on effect of arrangement of fins on melting performance of vertical PCM enclosure (3D simulation using FVM methods)

Abstract

Present investigation, effect of different forms of rectangular fins on melting performance of a vertical enclosure filled by with phase change material (PCM) was examined. Three individual fins were used instead of unit fin. The heat transfer surface was kept constant. The effect of location of fins as well as effect of length of fins and the distance of fins were considered as variant parameters. Firstly, placement of fins at lower half and upper half was examined. Secondly, effect of length of fins were examined. Finally, effect of vertical distance of fins was evaluated. Results presented that optimum melting efficiency was achieved when two of the three fins were placed in lower half. Through first step, case one, provided best performance which presented up to 23 percent improvement in overall melting time. At second step, case 10 had best performance and provided 30% improvement in melting time. Finally, at third step, case 13 had best melting performance. In this case, two of fins were positioned on lower half. lower and upper fins had the length of 40.5 and 10 mm. It is noteworthy that case 13 provided up 39% saved time for melting process in comparison with base case.