Investigation of the use of new fin on the melting time of the phase change material stored in the heat exchanger by computational fluid dynamics analysis

In this study, RT35 and RT42 are used as phase change materials (PCM) for latent thermal energy storage (LTES) in a double-tube concentric heat exchanger. A different fin model from the literature was used, and the fin efficiency was calculated with the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis using a different method. The thermal behavior of PCM in the melting process was simulated by CFD analysis for the models with/without fins using ANSYS Fluent commercial software. The models were analyzed at 60 degrees C temperature and 0.5 m/s flow rate of the heat transfer fluid, which was selected as the optimum analysis parameter, and 6, 9, 12, and 15 fins were added to the finless model. It was determined that the melting time decreased by 72.91 %, 76.25 %, 81.66 %, and 85 % for RT-35 phase change material and by 76.33 %, 79.33 %, 83 %, and 86.33 % for RT-42 with an increasing number of fins compared to the finless model. The shortest complete melting time of PCM was 240 and 36 min for RT35 with no fins and an optimum number of fins of 15, respectively. The simulation findings showed that a rise in the temperature of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and the number of fins shortened the PCM melting time. As a result, it was observed that the fin model with a different geometry from the literature was more effective in the complete melting time of PCM than the fin models in the literature.