Numerical analysis of the thermal behavior of a solar heat exchanger using multiple phase change materials

Abstract

Currently, solar energy is the most abundant and cleanest source of renewable energy, making it a good substitute for increasing energy efficiency. Solar water heaters can significantly reduce the cost of electricity consumption in homes and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Most homes use water heaters to produce domestic hot water at a temperature between 50 °C and 60 °C. A latent heat phase change module is created to account for variations in energy supply to solve the inherent intermittency problem. The solar water/PCM heat exchanger, a phase change heat storage system, is designed in this work. A numerical analysis was conducted to examine the impact of various cooling temperatures on the solidification thermal cycle of the phase change material. As this temperature range is suitable for its melting. The phase change material (PCM) can be used to effectively control the temperature. Depending on the PCM and its storage capacity, the temperature of the produced water is controlled. Through the tubes, the water used for heat transfer from the solar collector transfers the heat from the sun’s rays to the PCM. During the discharge phase, the heat that has been stored in the PCMs is then transferred to the water and heats it up. In order to quantitatively evaluate the thermal performance of the water heat exchanger, a numerical simulation using the finite volume method was also analyzed.