| Due to the advantage of the large heat storage capacity and isothermal behavior during the charging and discharging processes, latent thermal energy storage (LIES) systems have been widely used in solar energy utilization, industrial waste heat recovery and electrical power load shifting application in recent years. However, the phase change material (PCM) used in heat storage systems usually has low thermal conductivity, which is a major drawback for its application and development. Therefore, improving the charging-discharging rates and uniformity of the LTES system has been the focus of related research. Adding fins in the LTES system is an easy and effective method for the PCM heat transfer enhancement. In this paper, the effect of fin configurations on charging and discharging performances is investigated numerically and experimentally. The following topics are studied:(1) Mathematical model of the shell and tube LTES system is developed using the enthalpy method. Numerical simulations are carried out to study the effects of fin number, fin length and wall temperature on charging and discharging performances of the LTES system. Numerical results indicate the importance of fin configuration and wall temperature on the performances of the LTES system.(2) An experimental apparatus for the PCM heat transfer enhancement study is built. The charging and discharging performances of the LTES unit are investigated experimentally. Experimental results show that the charging-discharging rates can be greatly improved by using fins and vary greatly with different fin configurations.(3) The numerical simulation results are verified in comparison with the experimental results. The comparisons show good agreement between numerical and experimental results.
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