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Subject Area

Mechanical Power Engineering

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Due to the lack of solar energy continuity throughout the day, researchers tended to store this energy in phase change materials (PCM). The goal is to store a big amount of energy in a small PCM mass. In this study, the effect of the capsule shape (circular and elliptical cross-section), number of capsules with the same volume (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 capsules), and one capsule with increasing its initial volume (multiplying of volume ratio 1 (Vr = 2, 3, 4, and 5)) on the PCM melting process was studied. The results of the numerical model for both circular and elliptical cross-section capsules are validated with the experimental results in the literature and have a good agreement. The outcomes concluded that the performance of the elliptical cross-section capsule is higher than that of the circular cross-section at the same area, which leads to a decrease in the melting time by up to 50% for the same amount of heat stored in the capsule. The volume ratio (Vr) value has a great impact on the numerical results of the PCM melting process. The capsule melting time and its total energy stored increased as the value of Vr raises. The exergy difference between the two configurations increases with the increase of the volume ratio and number of capsules. The exergy efficiency of the capsule with a volume ratio equal to 5 is the highest value among all the discussed capsules.

Keywords

Energy storage; Volume ratio; PCM; Horizontal elliptical capsules

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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