Performance Evaluation of Coupled Thermal Enhancement through Novel Wire-Wound Fins Design and Graphene Nano-Platelets in Shell-and-Tube Latent Heat Storage System

Abstract

Technological development in latent heat storage (LHS) systems is essential for energy security and energy management for both renewable and non-renewable sources. In this article, numerical analyses on a shell-and-tube-based LHS system with coupled thermal enhancement through extended fins and nano-additives are conducted to propose optimal combinations for guaranteed higher discharging rate, enthalpy capacity and thermal distribution. Transient numerical simulations of fourteen scenarios with varied combinations are investigated in three-dimensional computational models. The shell-and-tube includes paraffin as phase change material (PCM), longitudinal, radial and wire-wound fins and graphene nano-platelets (GNP) as extended fins and nano-additives, respectively. The extended fins have demonstrated better effectiveness than nano-additives. For instance, the discharging durations for paraffin with longitudinal, radial and wire-wound fins are shortened by 88.76%, 95.13% and 96.44% as compared to 39.33% for paraffin with 2.5% GNP. The combined strengths of extended fins and nano-additives have indicated further enhancement in neutralising the insulative resistance and stratification of paraffin. However, the increase in volume fraction from 1% to 3% and 5% is rather detrimental to the total enthalpy capacity. Hence, the novel designed wire-wound fins with both base paraffin and paraffin with 1% GNP are proposed as optimal candidates owing to their significantly higher heat transfer potentials. The proposed novel designed configuration can retrieve 11.15 MJ of thermal enthalpy in 1.08 h as compared to 44.5 h for paraffin in a conventional shell-and-tube without fins. In addition, the proposed novel designed LHS systems have prolonged service life with zero maintenance and flexible scalability to meet both medium and large-scale energy storage demands.

Multi-Objective Optimization of Hybrid Heat Sinks with Phase Change Materials

“…Similarly, a combination of fins and nano-platelets for the extended life of the system was studied [29]. The combined effect of fins and nano additives strengthen the melting and shrink the resistance offered.…”

Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Wire Cloth Heat Exchanger for Latent Heat Storages

“…The wires were soldered perpendicular to the tube surface. Khan et al compared wire-wounded fins to longitudinal and radial fins [23]. The discharge time was reduced by 68% and 25% compared to the longitudinal and radial fins, respectively.…”