Numerical Investigation of the Behavior of Solidification in a Triplex Tube Heat Exchanger Containing Phase Change Material using Fin

Abstract

In this paper three dimensional numerical study of solidification of phase change material (PCM) in a triplex tube heat exchanger is studied. Water is used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) which flows through the inner and outer tubes while the shell side is filled with RT82 as the PCM. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of fin arrangement and the addition of CuO nanoparticles with different volume fractions on solidification behavior of phase change material. Also a comparison between triplex tube heat exchanger with fin and nanoparticles and triplex tube heat exchanger without fin and nanoparticles is done. Also, the amount of stored energy has been investigated. The results show that with the addition of nanoparticles, the solidification time for all heat exchanger with fines has decreased with respect to the without fin heat exchanger. The results also show that the reduction of solidification time compared to the without fin mode for interior pipe arrangement (Case B), for external pipe arrangement (Case C), both side pipes (Case D), and both side pipes (Case E), 40%, 57%, 58% and 56% respectively. Also, by changing the fluid temperature from 65 to 60 and 55 ° C, the solidification time decreased to 21% and 34%, respectively.

Keywords

• solidification process
• phase change material
• arrangement fins
• heat transfer