Experimental study of a shell-and-tube phase change heat exchanger unit with/without circular fins

This study presented an experimental investigation on heat transfer performance of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger with and without circular fins. Particular attention has been paid to the effect of injection flow rate of heat transfer fluid (HTF) on the thermal performance of the heat exchanger. A purposely-designed apparatus was built for experimental observation. Results showed that the application of fins had a great effect on improving phase change heat transfer and the full charging time was significantly reduced. Injection flow rate of HTF was found to have little influence upon the performance of the heat exchanger.