The shrinking size of thermal management devices pose not only the design challenges but also sabotage the overall performance and efficiency. Heat generated in the system needs to be removed to allow smooth functioning during the peak load conditions. This complicated requirement can be fulfilled with the help Phase Change Material (PCM) filled in a heat exchanger. PCM is filled around the tubes/plates installed in the heat exchanger for flow of heat transfer fluid. During flow of hot water, PCM receives heat from Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) and melts. Most of the analysis dealing with phase change studies in the past considered heat-conduction as only mode of heat transfer. But advancement in studies showed that even a small temperature difference by virtue of buoyancy causes natural convection to occur. As a result, heat transfer rate from HTF to PCM gets altered. The interaction between liquid and solid PCM leads the thermal/melt front propagation, which can be guided with the help of fins around tubes. In the present paper a numerical investigation on thermal front propagation for the case of without fins and with the fins in a heat exchanger has been studied. The results show effectiveness of the fins and significant improvement in heat removal efficiency of the heat exchanger.


Numerical Investigation on Thermal Front Propagation in a Pcm Filled Heat Exchanger for Efficiency Improvement

Division / Sponsors: 
Heat Transfer Division (HTD), Fluids Engineering Division (FED)

Heat Transfer Summer Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/HT/HT2020/volume/83709

18th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels, and Minichannels
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICNMM/ICNMM2020/volume/83693

Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/FEDSM/FEDSM2020/volume/83716

HT-ICNMM2020 - Virtual Conference, SHTC - Virtual Conference, FEDSM2020 - Virtual Conference

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