Investigation of Thermal Performance of Optimized Tree-Shaped Fins in Latent Heat Storage Units

Abstract

An innovative tree-shaped fin is proposed to address the problem of low thermal conductivity of phase change materials (PCMs) in latent heat energy storage units. Numerical methods are applied to investigate the thermal properties of the melting process of PCMs. This paper investigates the effects of fin arrangement, fin geometry parameters, and temperature of the heat source on melting characteristics of PCMs in the latent heat energy storage unit. Results show that the melting time of PCMs with the inwardly-tilted fins at the top increases by 21.3% compared to the outwardly-tilted fins at the bottom. The response surface methodology is adopted to obtain the fin parameter combination with lower quality and better performance. The optimal fin dimensions are a thickness of 1.06 mm, a length of 3.38 mm, and a spacing of 12.61 mm. The reduction of the ambient temperature from 35 °C to 30 °C increases the melting time of the latent heat energy storage unit by 85%, and from 35 °C to 40 °C decreases the melting time by 29%.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hebei Province (Grant No. E2022202139), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province of China (Grant No. E2021202163), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52176067).

Notes on contributors

Zhaoyang He

Zhaoyang He is currently studying for a master’s degree in the School of Energy and Environment at Hebei University of Technology. Her research direction is phase change heat transfer.

Li Yang

Li Yang is a Professor at Hebei University of Technology. She received her Ph. D. degree from Chongqing University in 1997. Her research interests include engineering thermophysics (heat and mass transfer phase transformation research, heat transfer enhancement and energy-saving technology) and air pollution control (ultra-fine particulate matter emission).

Wei Yang

Wei Yang is an Associate Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Hebei University of Technology. She received her Ph.D. degree from Hebei University of Technology in 2010. Her research interests include magnetic materials, metallic nanomaterials and amorphous materials.

Ke Tian

Ke Tian is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University. His research focuses on enhanced heat and mass transfer.

Jin Wang

Jin Wang is a Professor of Hebei University of Technology, the recipient of the Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hebei Province. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2012 from Xi’an Jiaotong University (film cooling technology for gas turbines). His research fields are nanomaterials applications for enhanced heat and mass transfer, electronics cooling, and building intelligent control.