Thermal Charging Optimization of a Wavy-Shaped Nano-Enhanced Thermal Storage Unit

Abstract

A wavy shape was used to enhance the thermal heat transfer in a shell-tube latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) unit. The thermal storage unit was filled with CuO–coconut oil nano-enhanced phase change material (NePCM). The enthalpy-porosity approach was employed to model the phase change heat transfer in the presence of natural convection effects in the molten NePCM. The finite element method was applied to integrate the governing equations for fluid motion and phase change heat transfer. The impact of wave amplitude and wave number of the heated tube, as well as the volume concertation of nanoparticles on the full-charging time of the LHTES unit, was addressed. The Taguchi optimization method was used to find an optimum design of the LHTES unit. The results showed that an increase in the volume fraction of nanoparticles reduces the charging time. Moreover, the waviness of the tube resists the natural convection flow circulation in the phase change domain and could increase the charging time.

Basics, properties, and thermal issues of EV battery and battery thermal management systems: Comprehensive review

“…PCM has teeny temperature variation during the phase change process, low melting, and high latent heat. 47,48 Moraga et al 49 used four kinds of pure PCM to design a BTM to investigate the optimal number of layers and locations of PCMs. The study revealed that three layers of PCM is the optimal configuration where the PCMs with higher thermal conductivity should be placed closer to the battery while PCMs with lower thermal conductivity should be placed in the outer wall.…”