Design Improvement of a Vertically
Oriented Thermal Energy Storage
System Considering Melting Front
Propagation
Kedumese u Mekrisuh, Udayraj, and Dushyant Singh
Abstract Total melting time of phase change material (PCM) is an important parameter of a latent heat-based thermal energy storage (TES) system. A numerical study
of a vertically orientated shell- and tube-type TES system has been performed in the
present study. It is identified that one of the major factors causing lower performance
of the TES systems is the late melting of PCM situated in the bottom region of the
system. It is proposed to introduce partition in the PCM region to address the issue.
To assess the improvement in performance of the TES system based on the melting
front propagation and zonal melting time, different designs and locations of partition
in PCM regions are analyzed. With a radial partition introduced into the TES system
such that 85% of the total PCM mass is situated in the upper zone and remaining in
the lower zone, the total melting time of PCM can be decreased by 29.69% when
compared with the normal TES system.
Keywords Total melting time · Phase change material · Melting front
propagation · Partition · Extended surface · Thermal energy storage system
1 Introduction
Vertically oriented shell- and tube-type latent heat-based thermal energy storage
(TES) system contains phase change material (PCM) in the shell and a heat transfer
fluid (HTF) flows through the tube to charge the PCM. For particular geometric
configurations and flow behavior of HTF of TES system as reported in [1], it is
observed that the melting front propagation of PCM in the bottom region takes
longer time than the top region due to buoyancy effect in the PCM domain, making
K. Mekrisuh · D. Singh
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Manipur, Imphal,
Manipur 795004, India
Udayraj (B)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai, Bhilai,
Chhattisgarh 492015, India
e-mail: udayraj@iitbhilai.ac.in
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. K. Parwani et al. (eds.), Recent Advances in Mechanical Infrastructure,
Lecture Notes in Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4176-0_20
245
Oriented Thermal Energy Storage
System Considering Melting Front
Propagation
Kedumese u Mekrisuh, Udayraj, and Dushyant Singh
Abstract Total melting time of phase change material (PCM) is an important parameter of a latent heat-based thermal energy storage (TES) system. A numerical study
of a vertically orientated shell- and tube-type TES system has been performed in the
present study. It is identified that one of the major factors causing lower performance
of the TES systems is the late melting of PCM situated in the bottom region of the
system. It is proposed to introduce partition in the PCM region to address the issue.
To assess the improvement in performance of the TES system based on the melting
front propagation and zonal melting time, different designs and locations of partition
in PCM regions are analyzed. With a radial partition introduced into the TES system
such that 85% of the total PCM mass is situated in the upper zone and remaining in
the lower zone, the total melting time of PCM can be decreased by 29.69% when
compared with the normal TES system.
Keywords Total melting time · Phase change material · Melting front
propagation · Partition · Extended surface · Thermal energy storage system
1 Introduction
Vertically oriented shell- and tube-type latent heat-based thermal energy storage
(TES) system contains phase change material (PCM) in the shell and a heat transfer
fluid (HTF) flows through the tube to charge the PCM. For particular geometric
configurations and flow behavior of HTF of TES system as reported in [1], it is
observed that the melting front propagation of PCM in the bottom region takes
longer time than the top region due to buoyancy effect in the PCM domain, making
K. Mekrisuh · D. Singh
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Manipur, Imphal,
Manipur 795004, India
Udayraj (B)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai, Bhilai,
Chhattisgarh 492015, India
e-mail: udayraj@iitbhilai.ac.in
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. K. Parwani et al. (eds.), Recent Advances in Mechanical Infrastructure,
Lecture Notes in Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4176-0_20
245