2nd International Conference on Sustainable

Energy Storage, June 19-21, Trinity College

Dublin, Ireland

Analysis of Latent Heat Storage Devices with Fins

Rozenfeld, T., Kozak, Y., Ziskind, G.
Heat Transfer Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
E-mail: gziskind@bgu.ac.il
Keywords : Phase change materials, CFD modeling, heat storage, fins

1. INTRODUCTION
The present work deals with a latent heat thermal storage
device that uses a finned tube with an array of fins. A heat
transfer fluid (HTF) flows through the tube and heat is
conducted from the tube to the fins that are in contact with the
bulk of the PCM inside a cylindrical shell. The thermal storage
charging/discharging process is driven by a hot/cold HTF inside
the tube that causes the PCM to melt/solidify.
A finned tube with a radial array of fins has been extensively
investigated in the past. Choi and Kim [1] investigated
experimentally the solidification process and found that the fins
can significantly enhance heat transfer. Ismail and Lino [2]
studied the influence of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) temperature,
mass flow rate and fin diameter on solidification. Hamdani and
Mahlia [3] found that the fins reduced the melting time and that
longitudinal fins enhanced heat transfer more than radial fins.
Lacroix [4] investigated melting in a horizontal radially
finned tube. An implicit 2-D axisymmetric problem was solved
using the enthalpy method. Convection in the melt was
simulated by an effective thermal conductivity, which was
dependent on the Rayleigh number. The numerical results
showed good agreement with the experimental findings. Erek et
al. [5] investigated, numerically and experimentally, the same
geometry. Ogoh and Groulx [6] numerically simulated a vertical
radially finned tube. The model used a 2-D equivalent heat
capacity method that neglects convection in the melt. For a large
number of fins the HTF flow rate affected noticeably the storage
process. Tay et al. [7] studied a similar storage device, taking
into account heat losses to the outer shell and the environment.
Chiu and Martin [8] studied a vertical device with radial fins and
two types of PCMs: paraffin and gelled salt-hydrate. For a 2-D
axisymmetric explicit finite-difference scheme, the agreement of
the results for the highly viscous gelled salt-hydrate was good.
Johansson et al. [9] took into account convection in the melt,
showing for a paraffin an agreement much better than the
effective thermal conductivity model.
Alternatively, an array of longitudinal plate fins may be used.
Sparrow et al. [10] compared experimentally the solidification
process on a vertical longitudinal finned and unfinned tube. It
was found that the fins significantly enhance the solidification
process. Bathelt and Viskanta [11] studied experimentally the
melting and solidification process on a horizontal tube that is
finned with three longitudinal plates. The results were compared
with an unfinned tube. Also, the effect of different fin
orientations was examined.

2. EXPERIMENT
The experimental set-up includes two one-piece finned tubes
made of aluminum 7075. The tube is 280 mm long with an
internal diameter of 8 mm and a thickness of 2 mm. One fin
array includes five radial fins with a diameter of 43 mm,
thickness of 3 mm and distance of 33 mm between each other.
An overview of that unit is shown in Figure 1. Another array
includes three longitudinal plate fins, as shown in Figure 2. Each
fin has a dimension of 180 mm along the tube, while its length is
such that the "diameter" of the array is 43 mm.

Figure 1. A storage unit with radial fins.

Figure 2. An array of longitudinal plate fins.

In both cases, the finned tube is sealed, using flanges and

O-rings, inside a Perspex cylindrical shell which is filled with
PCM. The shell has an external diameter of 50 mm, thickness of
3 mm and height of 218 mm. It is filled with a 96% eicosane
(C20H42 nominal melting temperature of 36.7 C). Two
thermostatic baths provide temperature-controlled hot and cold
water into the tube, for melting (charging) and solidification
(discharging) of the PCM, respectively. The water flow rate
inside the tube is monitored by a paddle-wheel type flow meter.
2. MODELING
Computational fluid dynamics model. The process of melting
in a unit with radial fins may be modeled by a detailed numerical
solution of the governing multi-dimensional conservation
equations. Among the simplifying assumptions one can mention
perfect insulation of the outer perimeter, identity of the melting
processes between each pair of fins, and axial symmetry. Under
these assumptions, a 2-D approach, implemented in ANSYS
Fluent, is used for the volume between a pair of neighboring fins.
The numerical domain is divided into solid and fluid cell zones.
The solid cells encompass the aluminum tube wall and fins. There,
only the heat conduction equation is solved. The fluid cells fill the
volume between a pair of fins, where the PCM is found. The full
conservation equations are solved for this domain. The boundary
conditions used are as follows: (i) symmetry for the upper and
lower parts of the fins, (ii) all the other external edges of the fins
are perfectly insulated, and (iii) the temperature of the inner tube is
constant.
The properties of eicosane are used in the numerical simulation
[12]. The melting temperature is not perfectly sharp, having a
range of 0.3 C. The solid and liquid phase properties change
linearly with temperature within the melting range. Dynamic
viscosity temperature-dependent values are interpolated from
experimental results. Melting is solved by the enthalpy-porosity
method. The pressure-velocity coupling is solved by a
pressure-based segregated solver using PISO method. The
pressure discretization scheme is PRESTO!, that was found
effective for similar melting problems. The momentum and energy
spatial discretization schemes are first-order upwind and the
temporal discretization scheme is first-order implicit.
Close-contact melting model. Here, corresponding to the case
when the solid is allowed to sink in the liquid, some special
assumptions are used as described in [13]: (i) there is a molten
liquid layer which thickness is uniform and smaller by an order
of magnitude than the unit radius, (ii) the solid-liquid interface is
horizontal and parallel to the fin, (iii) all the heat transfer is by
close-contact melting from the upper side of the fin, heat transfer
from the lower side is neglected, (iv) the sensible heating may be
neglected, meaning that all the heat is absorbed as latent heat,
but may also be included, (v) the fin is isothermal, (vi) the solid
temperature is constant and equal to the phase-change
temperature, (vii) the flow in the molten liquid layer is laminar
and quasi-steady, (viii) the solid motion downward is
quasi-steady, (ix) natural convection in the melt does not exist,
(x) linear temperature profile in the thin molten layer, (xi) no
heat transfer from the inner tube,.(xii) the molten PCM flows out
only at the outer radius, (xiii) the PCM properties are constant,

(xiv) the pressure gradient and velocity in the molten layer are
only in the radial direction. Assumptions (iii) and (xi) are due to
the fact that the heat transfer rate from the tube and the lower
side of the fin will decrease drastically with the growth of the
liquid layer between their surfaces and the solid PCM [14]. As
demonstrated there, natural convection may enhance the melting
rate at the advanced stages of melting, but in order to take it into
account a far more elaborate model is needed, which is beyond
the scope of this paper and should be addressed in a future
research.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figures 3 and 4 show examples of melting and solidification,
respectively, in a unit with radial fins which is exposed to
ambient. For melting, one can observe that the remaining solid
paraffin is attached to the envelope which is relatively cool. The
process advances more rapidly from upper surfaces of the fins,
due to the fact that natural convection may take place in heating
from below, thus enhancing melting.

Figure 3. Melting in a unit with radial fins.

Figure 4. Solidification in a unit with radial fins.

In solidification, a solid layer starts to form simultaneously on

the upper and lower surfaces of the fins. However, rather soon a
narrow passage between the fin and the envelope becomes blocked
by the solid. From that point on, solidification takes place on the
inner tube itself and on the upper surfaces of the fins, whereas their
lower surfaces become separated from the liquid due to volume
shrinkage that accompanies solidification.
Figure 5 shows a typical melting pattern in a unit with
longitudinal fins, with its envelope exposed to the ambient air. One
can see that melting is more advanced in the upper part of the unit.
This effect is due to natural convection and is typical for such
configurations as side-heated vertical enclosures and tubes [14].

Figure 7 shows a typical melting pattern for a case in which the

envelope of the unit is exposed to a heated environment. The latter
is achieved by submerging the entire unit into a specially
constructed water bath. It is important to note that the water
temperature is only slightly higher than the melting temperature
and its direct contribution to melting is negligible. However, this
way the envelope becomes warm just enough to have local melting
between it and the paraffin. Thus, the latter is detached from the
envelope and is allowed to sink in the liquid. As a result,
close-contact melting takes place on the upper surfaces of the fins.
We note that when longitudinal fins are used, a heated
environment does not have any noticeable effect on melting and
the latter remains very similar to that depicted in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Melting in a unit with longitudinal plate fins.

Figure 6 shows a comparison between experimental and
predicted melting patterns. A two-dimensional CFD approach is
used for modeling. Considering its limitations, and in particular the
inherent inability to reflect three-dimensional patterns, the
agreement is fairly good. One can even see a dent at the lower
surface of the solid, caused by a vortex developing due to the
heating from below.

Figure 6. Experiment and model for a unit with radial fins.

Figure 7. Melting with sinking in a unit with radial fins.

This process is modeled using the approach presented in
Section 2. An example of the results, with assumption (xi) not used,
is presented in Figure 8, One can see that the solid phase is very
close to the upper surface of a fin at any instant. Melting occurs
mostly there, with an addition at the surface of the tube.

Figure 8. Modeling of melting with sinking.

4. CLOSURE
The process of melting in finned latent heat thermal storage
device has been explored experimentally and numerically. The
material used was a commercially available paraffin-type
substance. Experiments included room temperature conditions
and a heated environment. The latter caused the solid bulk of the
PCM to sink, thus enabling close-contact melting. The
numerical approaches included a CFD model and a close-contact
melting model.
It was demonstrated that close-contact melting affects
noticeably the melting rate and shortens the melting time
considerably. The results indicate that heat supplied to the outer
shell of a latent-heat storage unit does not affect melting directly
but yields higher melting rates because it makes close-contact
melting possible.

6.

7.

8.

9.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of
Science & Technology, Israel, in the framework of French-Israeli
cooperation in renewable energy.
Gennady Ziskind is grateful to the EU COST Action
TU0802 for its sponsorship.
The experiments with longitudinal fins were performed by
Ronit Vaintrube and Shani Ezaguy.

10.

11.
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