Performance Enhancement of a PCM Cold Storage under Condition of Heat Flux

The objective of this work presents the numerical investigations of the enhancement performance of an phase change cold storage unit which is used for an air conditioning system during the solidification (discharge) process under the boundary condition of heat flux. The shell-and-tube cold storage unit is a typical tube-foil arrangement composed of an energy storage. The aluminum foils are arranged orthogonal to the axis of the tubes, and phase change material (PCM) fills the space between foils and tubes while the heat transfer fluid flows inside the tubes. The buildings use nighttime cold accumulation in PCM and cool hot air during the daytime in summer. When the cooling load is lower than the nominal cooling capacity of the system, the cold storage unit can store extra cold energy of the system to cool the interior of the building. The development of the model for the cold storage enables a detailed analysis of heat transfer process. The effects of foils and parameters on the behaviour of the performance are examined. Results show that by reducing the foil pitch or increasing heat flux has a significant enhancement effect on the heat transfer process.