Effect of natural convection on conjugate heat transfer characteristics in liquid minichannel during phase change material melting

Abstract

This article presents numerical and experimental simulation of three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer problem in mini-scaled thermal storage system. The conjugate problem includes melting process of phase change material in the presence of natural convection during laminar flow of heat transfer fluid through circular minichannel. The paraffin wax is used as a phase change material while the water is used as a heat transfer fluid. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the phase change material natural convection during the melting process on the heat transfer fluid thermal characteristics as well as the impact of the natural convection on the melting performance itself. The thermal characteristics are represented by local Nusselt number ( Nu) and local surface temperature. The melting performance is evaluated by fusion time and liquid fraction profile. Two inlet temperatures and velocities of the heat transfer fluid are adopted to highlight the effect of the natural convection. Combination of the inlet temperatures and velocities of the heat transfer fluid forms four cases: case_1 (at [Formula: see text] = 353 °K, [Formula: see text] = 1 m/s), case_2 (at [Formula: see text] = 453 °K, [Formula: see text] = 1 m/s), case_3 (at [Formula: see text] = 353 °K, [Formula: see text] = 0.1 m/s), and case_4 (at [Formula: see text] = 453 °K, [Formula: see text] = 0.1 m/s). Experimental test rig was constructed to verify the computational results and good agreement between both results was achieved. The study shows that the heat transfer fluid encounters an erratic thermal behavior during the phase change material melting process. For example, the local surface temperature experiences dramatic increase and decrease at certain sections of the channel length. The magnitude of this temperature inconsistency interrelates closely to the strength of natural convection impact, and this can expose the minichannel (which has short length) to severe wall thermal stress. The local Nu experiences improvement in some section of the channel and at the same time it suffers from drastic deterioration in its value particularly at the channel end at which the convection current accommodates. The case with the lowest inlet velocity and the highest inlet temperature has the smallest fusion time at expense of the largest heat transfer fluid bulk temperature gradient before reaching the fusion time. The study is considered as a benchmark and helpful guidelines in the design of small-scaled thermal storage systems of phase change material.