Analysis and comparative assessment of charging dynamics in vertical multi-channel latent heat storage system with corrugated wavy channels

Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) is a promising technology, but thermal response limitations caused by the relatively poor thermal conductivity of phase change materials (PCMs) remains an issue. In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has proven to be a powerful and reliable tool in design optimization of different systems and problems in the energy sector. Building on that, the present work will use CFD to investigate the thermal performance enhancements achieved using vertical double-tube LHTES systems with multi-channel sinusoidal wavy geometries. The main parameters investigated here are the wavy channel height (H), pitch (P) and the number of channels (N) and the results are assessed in terms of melting rates and heat transfer coefficients. The analysis found that increasing the height from 1 mm to 3 mm, accelerated the phase change by 21 %, while reducing the pitch from 12.5 mm to 5 mm, enhanced the heat storage rates by 28 %. In addition, increasing the number of channels from 3 to 7 improved the charging rate by 64 %. Compared to a conventional straight channel, the enhanced wavy channel (N = 7, H = 3 mm, P = 5 mm) achieved 80 % higher thermal storage rate and 42 % faster charging time. The above findings provide new insight into the potential of utilizing compact vertical LHTES systems via customized wavy channels, with significant impact towards enhancing the existing thermal energy storage systems.