Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Improved design for heat transfer performance of a novel phase

change material (PCM) thermal energy storage (TES)
Jundika C. Kurnia a, b, Agus P. Sasmito b, c, *, Sachin V. Jangam a, b, Arun S. Mujumdar a, b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576, Singapore
b
Mineral, Metal and Material Technology Centre, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576, Singapore
c
Mechanical Engineering, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 54224, United Arab Emirates

h i g h l i g h t s

< We develop conjugate mathematical model of phase change material (PCM) and heat transfer fluid HTF).
< Novel festoon thermal energy storage (TES) design yields improved heat transfer rate during charging/discharging.
< Multiple PCMs arrangement enhances the heat transfer performance further.
< TES has potential to be used as thermal capacitor in industrial application.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study evaluates numerically various configurations of PCM thermal energy storage devices,
Received 30 September 2011 e.g., U-tube, U-tube with in-line fins, U-tube with staggered fins and a novel festoon design. The
Accepted 11 August 2012 conjugate heat transfer between the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and PCM, which undergoes a cyclic melting
Available online 27 August 2012
and freezing process, is solved numerically using the computational fluid dynamic approach utilizing
enthalpy-porosity formulation. The results indicate that our novel festoon channel design yields
Keywords:
improved heat transfer rate for both charging and discharging stages. To further enhance heat transfer
Festoon
performance, we introduce use of multiple PCMs with various configurations of different PCM
Fins
Heat transfer performance
arrangement. Advantages and limitations of each design are evaluated with respect to their heat transfer
Mathematical model performance vis-à-vis heat storage capacity. Further R&D and experimentation is needed to arrive at
Thermal energy storage commercially viable designs of PCM heat storage units.
U-tube Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In attempt to enhance the performance of PCM assisted thermal

Recent years, phase change material (PCM) has received
significant attention due to their potential for thermal energy
storage. This is attributed to their high latent heat of fusion during
a phase change. PCM undergo melting (also known as charging)
and solidification (also known as discharging) as it is exposed to hot
and cold environment respectively [1]. Despite its huge potential,
application of PCM as thermal energy storage has certain draw-
backs: the requirement of high heat transfer rates during solidifi-
cation, lower thermal conductivity of PCMs, need of external
nucleating agents, limited cycles of melting and solidification.
* Corresponding author. Mechanical Engineering, Masdar Institute of Science and
Technology, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 54224, United Arab Emirates.
Tel.: þ971 2810 9320.
E-mail address: ap.sasmito@gmail.com (A.P. Sasmito).
storage, numerous study and investigation have been conducted and
various methods have been proposed. One route to enhance the
performance of PCM assisted thermal storage is by changing the
thermal properties of PCM and/or operating conditions, arrangement
of thermal energy storage e such as use of extended surfaces [1e5].
Various ways of increasing the thermal properties have been reported,
including the use of multiple PCMs, micro-encapsulated or nano-
encapsulated PCM (MEPCM or NEPCM) slurries in which the encap-
sulated particles are suspended in continuous phase such as water. The
use of multiple PCM allows sufficient driving force for heat transfer
along the flow direction (the difference between the heat transfer fluid
and the melting temperature of PCM) which otherwise is not possible if
single PCM is used [5]. Considerable effort has been devoted to study
the use of multiple PCM to enhance the performance of thermal heat
storage systems [6e9]. The later system of encapsulated PCM was
experimentally and numerically shown to perform better in terms of
heat transfer characteristics [10e13]. This was attributed to a larger

1359-4311/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.08.015
 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907 897

heat transfer area provided by smaller PCM particles resulting in

increased heat transfer rates. Our recent numerical study [14] showed
that the use of water suspension of microencapsulated phase change
material (n-octadecane) increases the heat transfer at the cost of higher
pumping cost in a coiled heat exchanger of square cross-section.
In addition, a vast number of studies have shown that extended
surfaces, metal matrix, metal rings, steel balls, carbon fibers and/or
other geometric modifications also results in enhancement of the
charging and discharging rates in PCM assisted heat storage
[2,4,5,15,16]. These extended surfaces (fins) are located on either
heat transfer fluid side or PCM side based on the relative heat
transfer coefficient value. Most of the times, it is located at the PCM
side where the heat transfer coefficient is low. The configuration and
orientation of fins is very important and has significant effect on the
heat transfer enhancement. There are number of experimental and
numerical research work carried out to study the effect of longitu-
dinal, circular extended surfaces and other arrangements [17,18].
To date, several experimental [19e22] and numerical [23e27]
studies have been conducted to investigate conjugate heat trans-
fer of PCM; several review papers [1,2,4,5,28,29] are also available
in literature. Despite numerous studies that have been conducted
and reported, none has arrived at definitive conclusion yet. There
is thus still room to further enhance the performance of PCM-
based thermal energy storage by utilizing extended surfaces,
new design and multiple-PCM. Therefore, the aim of the study
presented here is threefold: (i) to evaluate several geometrical
designs via conjugate model of PCM and HTF including conven-
tional U-tube design, U-tube design with different fins placement,
i.e., inline and staggered and a novel festoon design; (ii) to
investigate the effect of multiple PCMs and its placements
scenarios, e.g., vertical and horizontal, for further heat transfer
enhancement; (iii) to study the cyclic charging and discharging of
PCM and its potential to be used as thermal capacitor. The most
significant aspect of this study is to determine the potential
advantages and limitations of heat transfer enhancement in PCM
thermal energy storage and provide design guidelines for their
applications through mathematical modeling. The comparison was
carried out not only based on the liquid fraction and solidification
rates but also on the pressure drop required.

2. Model formulation

Here, we consider heat transfer fluid flows through a U-pipe of Fig. 1. Schematic representation of a) U-tube, b) U-tube with in-line fins c) U-tube
with staggered fins and d) festoon design phase change material thermal energy
circular cross-section immersed in a pool of PCM, as illustrated in
storage (PCM-TES).
Fig. 1. The PCM used for the current study is paraffin wax. Various
configurations considered in this study are: U-tube, U-tube with in-
line fins, U-tube with staggered fins and a novel festoon design
(please refer to Fig. 1 for detail schematics). Implementation of 2.1.1. Heat transfer fluid
multiple layers of PCM, as illustrated in Fig. 2, will also be investigated. In the HTF, fluid flow and convective heat transfer are taken into
consideration. A forced convection Newtonian laminar flow with
2.1. Governing equations the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy are
given by [35,36]
The mathematical model is based on the validated model that
vrw
was developed in our group [30e34] comprises two component, þ V$ðrw uÞ ¼ 0; (1)
vt
viz., water flows and PCM storage, which allows for conjugate heat
vðrw uÞ h  i
transfer between carrier fluid (water) and PCM. During charging, the þ V$ðrw u5uÞ ¼ Vp þ V$ mw Vu þ ðVuÞΤ ; (2)
hot water flows through the channel, the heat is then transferred to vt
the PCM to store the energy as latent heat (melt). While at dis- v   
charging, cool water flows at the channel to take heat from PCM. r cp;w T þ V$ rw cp;w uT ¼ V$ðkw VTÞ (3)
vt w
Initially, the PCM at the molten state and then solidified once the
heat is taken away. Note that the three-dimensional physical model where rw is the fluid density, u is the fluid velocity, p is the pressure,
is reduced to two-dimensional model to save computational cost. mw is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid, cp,w is the specific heat of
Note that the two-dimensional model is easier to scale-up in prac- the fluid and T is the temperature. The inlet water velocity is set
tical application by extruding the geometry in span-wise direction. uniform and constant for all cases
898 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907

Table 1
Base case and operating parameters.

Parameters Value Unit

cp,pcm 2890 J kg1 K
dpipe 5  103 m
ðsÞ ðlÞ
kpcm ; kpcm 0.21, 0.12 W m1 K1
L 173,400 J kg1
H 1  105 e
hTES 0.3 m
pout 1,011,325 Pa
ReHTF, in 1000 e
Tref 298.15 K
Tmin, Tmax 300, 350 K
Tsolidius, Tliquidius 309.15, 311.15 K
Tsolidius, lo, Tliquidius, lo 299.15, 301.15 K
Tsolidius, hi, Tliquidius, hi 319.15, 321.15 K
wTES 0.1 m

porosity formulation which is represented by additional source

terms in momentum equation, Smom and accounted for latent heat
of PCM in the enthalpy term of energy equation, Hpcm.

2.2. Constitutive relations

Thermophysical properties of water were obtained as poly-

nomial functions of temperature [35,36]. The water density is
defined by

rw ¼ 3:570  103 T 2 þ 1:88T þ 753:2; (8)

while the water viscosity is given by

mw ¼ 2:591  105  10T143:2 ;

238:3
(9)

and the thermal conductivity of water is calculated from

kw ¼ 8:354  106 T 2 þ 6:53  103 T  0:5981; (10)

The specific heat of water is considered constant at

cp;w ¼ 4200: (11)

The PCM considered in this study is paraffin wax; the density,
rpcm, is given by [31]

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of various configurations of phase change material

thermal energy storage (PCM-TES) with multiple PCMs.

2.1.2. PCM storage

In the storage, fluid flow, heat transfer and phase change
processes of PCM is taken into consideration. The conservation of
mass, momentum and energy are given by

vrpcm  
þ V$ rpcm u ¼ 0; (4)
vt
vrpcm  
þ V$ rpcm u5u ¼ V$s þ rpcm g þ Smom ; (5)
vt
h  i
s ¼ pΙ þ V$ mpcm Vu þ ðVuÞΤ ; (6)

v     
rpcm Hpcm þ V$ rpcm uHpcm ¼ V$ kpcm VT ; (7)
vt
Fig. 3. Liquid fraction average of charging (melting) phase change material for U-tube
where rpcm is the density of PCM and mpcm is the dynamic viscosity design [/]; U-tube with inline fins [e e]; U-tube with staggered fins [e $ e]; and
of the PCM. In the above equations, we implement enthalpy- novel festoon design [d].
 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907 899

Fig. 4. Liquid fraction distribution for (a) U-tube design; (b) U-tube with inline fins; (c) U-tube with staggered fins; and (d) novel festoon design [d] during charging at t ¼ 300 s.

750 The PCM viscosity is defined as

rpcm ¼ ; (12)
0:001ðT  319:15Þ þ 1
mpcm ¼ 0:001expð4:25 þ 1790=TÞ: (14)
The PCM thermal conductivity is estimated by
In equations (5) and (7), we have introduced an additional source
( ðsÞ term in momentum equation, Smom and accounted for latent heat of
kpcm if T < Tsolidius
kpcm ¼ ðlÞ ; (13) PCM in the enthalpy term of energy equation, Hpcm which defined as
kpcm if T>Tliquidius
Hpcm ¼ hpcm þ DHpcm ; (15)
where superscript (s) and (l) represent solid and liquid phase of the
PCM, respectively. where hpcm is the sensible heat, given by

Fig. 5. Velocity vector for (a) U-tube design; (b) U-tube with inline fins; (c) U-tube with staggered fins; and (d) novel festoon design [d] during charging at t ¼ 300 s.
900 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907

Fig. 6. Temperature contour for (a) U-tube design; (b) U-tube with inline fins; (c) U-tube with staggered fins; and (d) novel festoon design [d] during charging at t ¼ 300 s.

ZT Furthermore, the enthalpy-porosity formulation treats the

hpcm ¼ href
pcm þ cp;pcm dT; (16) mushy region (partially solidified) as a porous medium. The
porosity in each cell is set to equal to the liquid fraction in the cell.
Tref
In fully solidified region, the porosity is equal to zero, which
here, cp,pcm is the specific heat of the PCM. The latent heat of PCM is extinguishes the velocities in this region. The source term due to
calculated by the reduced porosity in the mushy zone is approximated by

ð1  bÞ
2
DHpcm ¼ bL; (17)
Smom ¼  Hu; (19)
3
b þ 0:001
where L is the latent heat of PCM and b is the melted mass fraction
of PCM given by
where H is mushy zone constant.
8
>
> 0 if T < Tsolidius
>
>
<T  Tsolidius
b¼ T if Tsolidius < T < Tliquidius (18)
>
> liquidius  Tsolidius 2.3. Boundary and initial conditions
>
>
: 1 if T>Tliquidius
The boundary conditions are defined as follows:

a) Inlet: At the inlet, we specify inlet velocity and inlet

temperature:

u ¼ U in ; T ¼ T max for charging;

(20)
u ¼ U in ; T ¼ T min for discharging:

b) Outlet: At the outlet, we set pressure and stream-wise gradient

of temperature to zero; the outlet velocity is not known a priori
but needs to be iterated from the neighboring computational
cells:

p ¼ pout ; n$ðkw VTÞ ¼ 0: (21)

c) Walls: At walls, we set no slip and no heat flux condition:

u ¼ 0; n$ðkVTÞ ¼ 0: (22)

Fig. 7. Liquid fraction average of discharging (solidification) phase change material for
d) Interface: At the interface between HTF and PCM, we specify
U-tube design [/]; U-tube with inline fins [e e]; U-tube with staggered fins [e $ e]; no-slip condition for velocities and coupled temperature to
and novel festoon design [d]. allow for conjugate heat transfer:
 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907 901

Fig. 8. Liquid fraction distribution for (a) U-tube design; (b) U-tube with inline fins; (c) U-tube with staggered fins; and (d) novel festoon design [d] during discharging at
t ¼ 1000 s.

þ 
u ¼ 0; Titf ¼ Titf : (23) b) Discharging: During discharging, the initial temperature is set
to be equal to maximum temperature of hot water:
The initial conditions are defined as follows:
at t ¼ 0; T ¼ T max ; u ¼ 0: (25)
a) Charging: During charging, we set initial temperature to be the
same as ambient temperature: In this paper, a constant velocity of water at Re 1000 is
prescribed at the inlet for comparison purposes. The values for the
at t ¼ 0; T ¼ T min ; u ¼ 0: (24) above parameters are summarized in Table 1

Fig. 9. Velocity vector for (a) U-tube design; (b) U-tube with inline fins; (c) U-tube with staggered fins; and (d) novel festoon design [d] during discharging at t ¼ 1000 s.
902 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907
Fig. 10. Temperature contour for (a) U-tube design; (b) U-tube with inline fins; (c) U-tube with staggered fins; and (d) novel festoon design [d] during discharging at t ¼ 1000 s.
3. Numerics
The computational domains were created in the commercial
pre-processor software GAMBIT 2.3.16. It was also used for mesh-
ing, labeling boundary conditions and determines the computa-
tional domain. To ensure grid independent results, we have carried
out grid independence test where we compare three different mesh
sizes: 1.5  104, 3  104 and 6  104 in terms of melting and
solidification rate. We found that the mesh amount of 3  104
results in 2% deviation in terms of melting and solidification time
compared to the mesh amount of 6  104; meanwhile, results from
the mesh size of 1.5  104 deviates up to 12% as compared to those
from the finest one. Therefore, a mesh of around 3  104 elements
was sufficient for the numerical investigation purposes: a fine
structured mesh near the wall to resolve the boundary layer and an
increasingly coarser mesh in the rest of the domain in order to
reduce the computational time.
Fig. 11. Liquid fraction average of charging (melting) of novel festoon design with
multiple phase change materials for type 1 [/]; type 2 [e e]; type 3 [e $ e]; type 4 [e
]; and single PCM design [d].
The pressure-based method within version 6.3.26 of the
commercial code FLUENT was utilized for solving the governing
equations. User-defined functions (UDF) were written in C language
to account for temperature-dependence of the thermo-physical
properties of paraffin wax and water. The time step for inte-
grating the temporal derivatives was set to 0.1 s. The first-order
upwind differencing scheme was used for solving the momentum
and energy equations, whereas the PRESTO scheme was adopted
for the pressure correction equation. The under-relaxation factors
for the velocity components, pressure correction and thermal
energy were 0.5, 0.3 and 1 respectively. Convergence criteria were
set at 103 for continuity and momentum, and 106 for thermal
energy.
An enthalpy-porosity technique is used in FLUENT for modeling
the solidification/melting process. In this technique, the liquid melt
fraction in each cell is computed every iteration, based on enthalpy
balance. The mushy zone is the region where the porosity increases
from 0 to 1 as the PCM melts. When the region is complete solid,
the porosity is zero and also the flow velocity in that zone also
drops to zero.
4. Results and discussion
The numerical simulations were carried out for typical condi-
tions found in PCM thermal energy storage. The base-case condi-
tions together with the physical parameters are listed in Table 1. In
the following, we will examine the performance of various design
of thermal energy storage.
4.1. Effect of geometrical design
The time evolution of melting of PCM for various designs of TES
is presented in Fig. 3. As can be seen, the novel festoon design offers
better heat transfer performance, indicated by largest melting
fraction at early stage of melting process. It also reaches steady-
state significantly faster as compared to other design. This is
attributed to the fact that the festoon design has larger surface
contact area than other designs. Furthermore, it is found that U-
tube with fins perform better as compared to the U-tube without
 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907 903

Fig. 12. Liquid fraction distribution for novel festoon design with multiple PCMs configuration for (a) type 1; (b) type 2; (c) type 3; and (d) type 4 during charging at t ¼ 300 s.

fin. This is expected since addition of fin will enhance heat transfer
surface and in turn improve heat transfer rate. Looking further, we
find that U-tube with staggered fins has slightly higher heat
transfer rate than U-tube with inline fins. This can be attributed to
the natural convection occur during charging which strongly
influenced by the fin arrangement. As can be inferred from Figs. 4e
6, inline fin arrangement blocks the flow of the melting PCM and
hence resists natural convection that occurs during charging.
Meanwhile, staggered arrangement allows natural convection
stream to spread to the upperside of the TES. Novel festoon design
performs superior as compared to other designs: higher melted
fraction (Fig. 4), better natural convection heat transfer represented
by higher velocity magnitude inside PCM container (Fig. 5) and
higher temperature rise (Fig. 6).
With regards to the heat transfer performance of HTF, we note
that the outlet water temperature difference for novel festoon
design is around 30%, 22% and 18% lower than that of U-tube, inline
and staggered fins design, respectively, during charging, although
the pressure drop required for festoon design is around 80% higher
than others. This clearly indicates that the novel festoon design is
superior to other designs at an expense of higher pumping power.
Similar to those for melting process, the novel festoon design
provides the highest heat transfer during solidification process.
This can be inferred from Fig. 7, where the festoon design has the

Fig. 13. Velocity vector for novel festoon design with multiple PCMs configuration for (a) type 1; (b) type 2; (c) type 3; and (d) type 4 during charging at t ¼ 300 .
904 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907
Fig. 14. Temperature contour for novel festoon design with multiple PCMs configuration for (a) type 1; (b) type 2; (c) type 3; and (d) type 4 during charging at t ¼ 300 s.
lowest liquid fraction during early stage of discharging, indicating
faster solidification. The PCM inside this design also reaches steady-
state significantly faster compared to other design. This is due to
longer HTF flow passage which allow for heat to be transferred
from PCM to the HTF, as seen Fig. 8. It should be noted, however,
that the time frame required for complete discharging is about
three to four times longer compared to charging: that is around
4000 s for complete discharging compared to around 1000 s for
complete charging of festoon design e which is the major drawback
for PCM TES. Closer inspection reveals that that the novel festoon
design enhances the discharge rate by 50% and 40% compared to U-
tube and U-tube with fins design, respectively.
It is also found that U-tube with fins design performs better as
compared to the U-tube without fin; whereas the fins arrangement
has insignificant effect to the discharge rate. This is attributed to the
fact that, unlike charging for which the heat transfer is dominated
by natural convection, the discharge heat transfer is dominated by
heat conduction mechanism; thus the fins arrangement does not
significantly contribute to the heat transfer performance. Fig. 9
shows the PCM velocity vector during solidification. We note that
Fig. 15. Liquid fraction average of discharging (solidification) of novel festoon design
with multiple phase change materials for type 1 [/]; type 2 [e e]; type 3 [e $ e]; type
4 [e]; and single PCM design [d].
the PCM velocity is much smaller (around two to three order-of-
magnitude) than that of the natural convection velocity during
charging (Fig. 5). Aside from the fact that addition of fin will
enhance heat transfer surface, addition of fin allows for heat
transfer from the PCM to the U-tube when a layer of frozen PCM
blocks heat transfer from the melting PCM to U-tube. The fins could
reach melting section of PCM which may be far from the U-tube as
the solidification is controlled by heat conduction mode. In addi-
tion, longer flow passage in festoon design is beneficial for heat
transfer performance: It results in significantly smaller tempera-
ture along the passage than that at the PCM container, as can be
seen in Fig. 10. These results suggest that the novel festoon design is
more desirable for heat transfer enhancement during charging and
discharging. However, further optimization may be needed for
specific applications.
4.2. Effect of multiple PCM arrangement
A further point of interest in this study is the implementation of
multiple PCM with different melting point in TES. Here we utilize
the novel festoon design as it is found to provide highest heat
transfer. Properties of these PCM are summarized in Table 1 for
which the melting and solidification point is 10 C higher and lower
than that of base-case PCM. Four arrangements are investigated in
this study (please refer to Fig. 2): vertical arrangements with either
low or high melting point PCM on top and horizontal arrangements
with either low or high melting point on the inlet side.
Fig. 11 presents the liquid fraction average of the various
multiple PCM arrangements and single PCM design during melting
process. Here, several features are apparent; foremost among them
is that the multiple PCM arrangement yields higher heat transfer
rate as compared to single PCM design. It is also noted that the
horizontal arrangement performs slightly higher heat transfer rate
as compared to the vertical counterpart. Charging rate for type 2
arrangement improves by up to around w30% followed by type 1
(w25%), type 3 (w15%) and type 4 (w12%) compared to the single
PCM design. Looking further, we find that multiple PCMs arrange-
ment with lower melting point PCM located at the inlet side offers
higher heat transfer rate compared to that with higher melting
point PCM at the inlet (Fig. 12). This is due to the fact that lower
 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907 905

Fig. 16. Liquid fraction distribution for novel festoon design with multiple PCMs configuration for (a) type 1; (b) type 2; (c) type 3; and (d) type 4 during discharging at t ¼ 1000 s.

melting point PCM is easier to melt even at low temperature
difference. Furthermore, placing lower melting point at the top of
the TES has advantages as it allows for natural convection to
develop; whilst placing the PCM at the bottom hinders the natural
convection to occur especially at the area bellow the HTF pipe, see
Fig. 13 for details of the development of velocity vector due to
buoyancy. We note that PCM with lower melting temperature has
slightly higher natural convection due to higher buoyancy which is
mirrored by faster melting. Furthermore, the velocity vector for
horizontal arrangement is seen to be somewhat higher than
vertical counterpart as there are no separators which block the flow
as in vertical arrangement. The melted fraction and natural
convection are mirrored by higher temperature distribution at the
PCM container as illustrated in Fig. 14, for which Type 2 design
yields the highest average temperature.
In contrast to those during charging, multiple PCMs arrange-
ment with high melting point at the inlet (type 1) side offers the
highest heat transfer rate among others, indicated by smaller liquid
fraction in Fig. 15. This is attributed to the fact that high melting
point also has high solidification temperature which, in turn,
speeds up the solidification process. Fig. 16 shows the local liquid
fraction distribution throughout each design. It is seen that type 1
has the larger solidified region at the top; whereas type 2 has the
larger solidified area at the bottom of TES. Similarly, for horizontal
designs type 3 has larger solidified area at the left region whilst
type 4 yields the larger solidified area at the right region. On closer

Fig. 17. Velocity vector for novel festoon design with multiple PCMs configuration for (a) type 1; (b) type 2; (c) type 3; and (d) type 4 during discharging at t ¼ 1000 s.
906 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907
Fig. 18. Temperature contour for novel festoon design with multiple PCMs configuration for (a) type 1; (b) type 2; (c) type 3; and (d) type 4 during discharging at t ¼ 1000 s.
inspection, however, the deviation of heat transfer between each
design is not as significant as those during charging: the difference
is up to 20% and around 5% compared to single PCM and other
multiple PCMs design, respectively, at the first 1000 s and become
smaller e even under-perform for some cases e thereafter. We also
note that the development of natural convection velocity during
discharging (Fig. 17) is much smaller, around two to three order-of-
magnitude, than those during charging which is consistent with
previous finding. Fig. 18 shows temperature distribution for each
case. It is observed that Type 1 yields the lowest temperature
distribution which indicates faster discharging rate. Therefore, it
can be deduced that the vertical placement of multiple PCMs with
high melting point placed at the top has potential to be used to
enhance heat transfer performance during discharging.
4.3. Effect of thermal cycling
In practical application, the thermal energy storage may
undergo thermal cycling of melting and freezing several times.
Fig. 19. Liquid fraction average of cyclic melting and freezing of novel festoon design
with single PCM [d] and multiple PCMs type 1 design.
Here, we simulate thermal cycling of chargingedischarging of
novel festoon design with single and multiple PCMs. Fig. 19 shows
the average liquid fraction of PCM during thermal cycling for every
400 s. It is seen that that the behavior of melting-solidification
became cyclic steady-state after few cycles. Closer inspection
reveals that the festoon design with multiple PCM performs slightly
better especially during first cycle. As the required time for melting
is faster than solidification, TES also has potential to be used as
thermal capacitor in industrial application.
5. Concluding remarks
In the present work, a numerical investigation is carried out to
investigate and enhance the heat transfer performance in thermal
energy storage (TES) system, viz. geometric modification and use of
multiple layers of PCM. The results indicate that the novel festoon
design provide highest heat transfer performance followed by U-
tube with fins. It is found that U-tube with staggered fins perform
better as compared to U-tube with in-line fins.
Another finding is that the implementation of multiple PCMs
could enhance heat transfer performance within TES. Different
arrangement of PCMs significantly affects the heat transfer
performance: placement of high melting point PCM at the inlet side
during discharging improves heat transfer but it slightly under-
perform during charging. It has also been shown that TES has
potential for thermal capacitor in industrial application to store
excess/sudden surge of thermal energy as it has fast charging rate.
Nomenclature
cp specific heat [J kg1 K1]
dpipe diameter of pipe [m]
g gravity [m s2]
h sensible heat [J kg1]
H total enthalpy [J kg1]
DH enthalpy of phase change [J kg1]
k thermal conductivity [W m1 K1]
H mushy zone constant
L length [m]
 J.C. Kurnia et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 50 (2013) 896e907 907

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