Enhancement of the thermal energy storage using heat-pipe-assisted phase change material

Hamidreza Behi*, Mohammadreza Behi, Ali Ghanbarpour, Danial Karimi, Aryan Azad, Morteza Ghanbarpour, Masud Behnia

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)
466 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Usage of phase change materials’ (PCMs) latent heat has been investigated as a promising method for thermal energy storage applications. However, one of the most common disadvantages of using latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) is the low thermal conductivity of PCMs. This issue affects the rate of energy storage (charging/discharging) in PCMs. Many researchers have proposed different methods to cope with this problem in thermal energy storage. In this paper, a tubular heat pipe as a super heat conductor to increase the charging/discharging rate was investigated. The temperature of PCM, liquid fraction observations, and charging and discharging rates are reported. Heat pipe effectiveness was defined and used to quantify the relative performance of heat pipe-assisted PCM storage systems. Both experimental and numerical investigations were performed to determine the efficiency of the system in thermal storage enhancement. The proposed system in the charging/discharging process significantly improved the energy transfer between a water bath and the PCM in the working temperature range of 50 C to 70 C.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6176
Pages (from-to)1-19
Number of pages19
JournalEnergies
Volume14
Issue number19
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2021

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • Energy storage
  • Heat pipe
  • Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES)
  • Phase change material (PCM)

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