Effect of Fin Orientations in a Spherically Encapsulated Phase Change Materials for Effective Heat Transfer Enhancement

Abstract

In the recent years, phase change materials (PCM) are being used for various applications. Considering its potential in engineering sector, researchers are working in every aspect to overcome the inherent lower thermal properties of PCM. Though numerous techniques were reported in the past to augment the heat transfer in PCM based storage system, no attempt has been made on accounting the heat transfer enhancement in internally finned spherical capsule. In the present study, experiments were conducted to explore and report the effect of fin orientation (orthogonal and circumferential) on heat transfer enhancement of a PCM filled in a spherical capsule. The temperature profile of paraffin PCM filled in an orthogonal and circumferential internally finned spherical capsule of charging and discharging process of was compared respectively with no fin configuration. The inference from the results is that for the same surface area, orthogonally oriented fin resulted in appreciable reduction in total time taken for complete charging/discharging process than the circumferential fin and no fin configuration. The reduction in charging duration of 22 % and 42 % was observed in orthogonal fin orientation compared to circumferential fin and no fin configurations, respectively. Similarly, 15 % and 38 % reduction in discharging duration was observed in orthogonal fin compared to circumferential fin and no fin configurations, respectively.