Thermal performance analysis of triple casing latent heat system based on sinusoidal function type corrugation

Abstract

The natural convection disappears and the melting rate of phase change material (PCM) decreases in the microgravity environment of spacecraft operation. For the characteristics of low thermal conductivity of phase change materials, a triple casing based on sinusoidal function type corrugated structure as latent heat storage system (TTES) is proposed to improve the melting performance of the latent heat storage system. In this paper, the study model is simplified to a 2D model using commercial CFD software to numerically simulate the phase change heat transfer process, and the heat transfer characteristics of the sinusoidal function type corrugated triple casing and the effect of Reynolds number on the melting process are investigated. The results show that: the joint action mechanism of sinusoidal corrugation structure and phase change material local heat transfer can significantly shorten the heat charging time; reasonable change of corrugation period and crest height can shorten the heat charging time and increase the heat storage; comprehensive analysis of heat charging time, heat storage and average heat flux, through single-factor optimization to obtain a sinusoidal pipe with corrugation period between 100 mm and 150mm and crest height around 15 mm on The comprehensive performance of flow heat exchange has the best effect.