Case Studies in Thermal Engineering (Jun 2021)
Enhancement of phase change materials melting performance in a rectangular enclosure under different inclination angle of fins
Abstract
In the present investigation Melting rate enhancement of phase change materials in three sides adiabatic and one side isothermal rectangular enclosure by using inclinations of fins has been conducted. To enhance the melting rate performance of phase change materials inside a rectangular enclosure, the number of fins has been optimized under constant length and width of the enclosure and fixed fin thickness of 4 mm. To keep a constant mass of phase change material inside the enclosure length of fins was decreased as the fin number increased in the enclosure. The walled enclosure is maintained at a constant temperature of 333.5 K from the bottom side. Aluminum fins were selected for these numerical investigations. The optimum number of fins was found to be 2 fins for this scenario. Subsequently, investigations on an optimum number of fins in this scenario melting rate enhancement by three cases of fin inclination (60θ, 45θ, and 35θ inclination angle of the fin) have been simulated. Optimization of fins number density can be achieved from the present observation, since melting time effect of fins density was not showing only increasing function. Comparing to pure melting phase change material, the optimized fin number (2 fins) of this scenario can reduce the melting time by 43%. Additionally, 31% and 5.12% melting time decrease can be obtained by setting optimized fin of this scenario (2 fins) case in 45θ and 60θ inclinations of fins, respectively. Finally, the results of the melting time ratio were compared with those obtained through the use of fin inclination cases with no fin case. Approximately melting time of 45θ inclination of a fin is the 1800s shorter than that of 90θ fin inclination cases of the optimum fin number. These results show that, if fins can be optimized in number and setting inclination in a specific operative design the efficiency of the system can be augmented with a desirable reduction of the melting time of phase change materials.
