Preliminary experimental assessment of a vertical shell and tube heat exchanger based on phase change materials

Abstract

The paper presents an experimental setup developed for phase change materials (PCM) testing inside a vertical shell and tube heat exchanger (VSATHE). The work presented part of a more complex one focusing on designing a PCM heat exchanger that could be used in the defrosting process of commercial and refrigeration systems. The phase change materials (PCM) were commercial paraffin RT54HC, while water was used as heat transfer fluid (HTF). This work was presented The impact of changing the temperature of the inlet water (70 °C, 75 °C, and 80 °C) and the change of flow rate (0.012kg/sec, 0.014kg/sec and 0.016kg/sec) in the solidification and melting of the PCM. The results of the experiments showed that when the inlet hot fluid temperature increases at the same flow rate, the melting time in VSATHE units decreases. At the same time, during the charging process, the increase of flow rate with the difference in inlet temperature has no effect on the total melting time.