Effect of Fin Shape on Thermal Performance Enhancement of PCM-Based Low-Grade Heat Harnessing Exchanger

Abstract

The phase change material (PCM)-based low-grade heat harnessing exchanger is used to study the recovering wasted energy from grey water. This experimental study investigated the effect of fin shape on improving the thermal performance of a PCM-based low-grade heat harnessing exchanger. Three heat exchangers of equal dimensions, namely, finless, inclined finned and V-shaped finned heat exchangers, were manufactured and tested in a container containing the PCM. A finless heat exchanger was adopted as a base case to demonstrate the improvement of heat transfer by using fins. The finless heat exchanger consists of two serpentine tubes where the cold water and grey water flow in a counter flow arrangement. A series of experimental tests was conducted for the three exchangers with similar operational conditions for both PCM process (melting and solidification). Compared with the finless heat exchanger, the results show that the addition of the fins remarkably enhances the heat transfer between the heat exchanger and PCM in the two processes. The inclined fins are superior than the V-shaped fins in enhancing thermal performance. Compared with the finless heat exchanger, the heat transfer improvement in melting process is reached about 187.49% and 149.88% for heat exchanger with the inclined and V-shaped fins, respectively. The reduction in the solidification time is approximately 3 times higher than the reduction in the melting time for inclined fins and approximately 2.85 times for the V-shaped fins. Increasing the mass flow rates of grey water and cold water accelerates the melting and solidification of the PCM, and this acceleration is obvious in solidification.

Investigation and Optimization of a Thermal Management System for Lithium-Ion Batteries Combining Closed Air-Cooling With Phase Change Material

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