Heat transfer enhancement in latent heat thermal energy storage system by using the internally finned tube

The heat transfer enhancement in the latent heat thermal energy storage system by using an internally finned tube is presented in this paper. The phase change material fills the annular shell space around the tube, while the transfer fluid flows within the internally finned tube. The melting of the phase change material is described by a temperature transforming model coupled to the heat transfer from the transfer fluid. The heat conduction in the internal fins is an unsteady two-dimensional heat conduction problem and is solved by a finite difference method. The results showed that adding internal fins is an efficient way to enhance the heat transfer in thermal energy storage systems when a fluid with a low thermal conductivity is used as the transfer fluid.