Thermal performance enhancement of energy storage system using spiral-wired tube heat exchanger

ABSTRACT

A well-design latent heat storage system substantially increases the acceptance and reliability of renewable energy resources and makes them available permanently. For this purpose, there are many ways to enhance the thermal performance of the latent heat storage system. In this work, it is suggested to use the spiral-wired tube, a finned tube with a coiled helical spiral connecting the fins end. The study includes a comparison between three different models of storage systems: shell and tube heat exchanger (STHX), shell and finned tube heat exchanger (SFTHX), and shell and spiral-wired tube heat exchanger (SSWTHX). The proposed models are designed and tested experimentally, and three-dimensional CFD models are developed based on the enthalpy-porosity method. The results proved that the sequence of the three models in terms of melting speed was SSWTHX, SFTHX and STHX, respectively. The distinctive design of SSWTHX improves heat transfer and thus improves the performance of the latent heat storage system. The change in the distribution of paraffin temperature was faster in SSWTHX, which gave the highest temperatures, and accelerated the melting process by 37.5% compared to STHX. While the melting time reduction of SFTHX compared with STHX reached 21.3%. There was a good agreement when the numerical results were compared to the experimental data.

KEYWORDS:

• Spiral-wired tube
• latent heat storage system
• melting time
• CFD modeling
• thermal performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hiba A. Hasan

Hiba A. Hasan, Doctor in Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq. Her research fields of interest are Heat Transfer, Numerical Simulation, FLUENT, Porous Materials Renewable Energy, Thermal Energy Storage, PCMs.

Kadhim H. Suffer

Kadhim H. Suffer is working as Assistant Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq. His research fields of interest are Wind Turbines, Wind Energy,Turbulence Modeling, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Numerical Simulation, Solar Power, Aerodynamics, FLUENT, and Nanofluids.