Experimental and numerical study on the effect of multiple phase change materials thermal energy storage system

Abstract Nowadays, thermal energy storage using Phase Change Materials (PCMs) receives a great interest due to its high energy storage density especially for low and medium temperature storage applications. Nevertheless, PCM suffers from the low thermal conductivity during the charging and discharging of heat. In this study, the multiple PCM technique has been investigated as a thermal enhancement technique in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The investigations have been conducted experimentally and numerically using different PCM arrangements and working conditions for Paraffin wax. The experimental work shows higher average temperature of PCM in the multiple PCM arrangement than the other two arrangements of low and high PCM arrangement. The conducted numerical analysis focuses on the geometrical parametric study by varying both the radial and the axial dimensions of the cylindrical storages. The results show that longer PCM storage enhances the melting time compared to the wider PCM storage for the same amount of PCM.