PHASE-CHANGE MATERIAL HEAT EXCHANGER WITH COIL TUBES - EXPERIMENT AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
Thermal energy storage in a vertically oriented, phase-change material (PCM) filled coil heat exchanger is investigated through experiments and numerical calculations based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). History of temperature at a number of monitoring points, heat transfer rate and change of solid/liquid phase fractions during the melting and solidification process are recorded. In the melting stage (charging) acceptable agreement of experimental results and numerical prediction is observed. During the solidification process (discharging), shrinkage of PCM triggered by cooling is seen, resulting in air gaps between the heat-transfer pipe and storage medium, which makes heat transfer limited.