Accepted Manuscript

Investigation of PCM Charging for the Energy Saving of Domestic Hot Water
System

Majid Gorzin, Mohammad J. Hosseini, Ali A. Ranjbar, Rasoul Bahrampoury

PII: S1359-4311(17)37816-X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.04.016
Reference: ATE 12013

To appear in: Applied Thermal Engineering

Received Date: 9 December 2017

Revised Date: 3 April 2018
Accepted Date: 4 April 2018

Please cite this article as: M. Gorzin, M.J. Hosseini, A.A. Ranjbar, R. Bahrampoury, Investigation of PCM Charging
for the Energy Saving of Domestic Hot Water System, Applied Thermal Engineering (2018), doi: https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.04.016

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 Investigation of PCM Charging for the Energy Saving of
Domestic Hot Water System
Majid Gorzina, Mohammad J. Hosseinib,1, Ali A. Ranjbara, Rasoul Bahrampouryc

a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Babol University of Technology, POB 484, Babol, Iran
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Golestan University, POB 155, Gorgan, Iran
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

In this paper an investigation on the charging process of a phase change material (PCM)

integrated in a domestic hot water system is presented. In order to increase the amount of the

stored energy in a limited portion of time during maximum solar radiation it is preferred to reduce

the melting time of the PCM used in the heat exchanger. Therefore the effect of mass distribution

of a PCM in a multi-tube heat exchanger is studied. Paraffin RT50, is used as the PCM and water

as the heat transfer fluid (HTF) carries the energy gained in solar flat plate collector. Enthalpy

porosity method is applied for modeling the phase change process and an experimental result is

used to validate the model. There are six different cases in order to examine the effect of mass

distribution on the melting time to reach the minimum value. Temperature and heat flux versus

time as well as liquid fraction contours and behavior of the charging process are described. The

results show that by distributing the PCM mass in a specific arrangement in which 40% of PCM

mass is in inner tube, 52% reduction in melting time is achieved hence solar energy can be used

more efficiently in the time of maximum solar radiation.

Keywords: PCM charging, domestic hot water system, Heat exchanger, solar

1
Corresponding Author: (M.J. Hosseini) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Golestan University,
P.O. Box 155, Gorgan, Iran, Email: Mj.hosseini@gu.ac.ir
1. Introduction

Rapid increase in economic development all over the world causes strong demand of an

uninterrupted supply of energy. Since there are limitations in conventional fossil energy sources

and the use of the fossil fuels leads to emission of harmful gases, renewable energy sources are

attracting more and more attentions. Therefore, scientists and engineers are looking for

technologies that may facilitate the use of renewable energy sources. One of these technics that

opens the door for the use of renewable energy is efficient application of energy storage systems.

By utilizing effective energy storage systems, the variable and unpredictable gap between the

demand and supply of almost all kinds of renewable energy vanishes. Thus, energy storage is one

of the biggest challenges that the technologists encounters with [1].

Thermal energy can be stored in three different ways; sensible, latent and thermal–chemical.

Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) (in which PCM is a critical component) because of

its several acceptable characteristics such as high energy storage density and small variations in

temperature is the most favorable method for storing thermal energy [2].

Zalba et al. [3] conducted a review on thermal energy storage with PCM, heat transfer perusal and

applications.

Numerical and experimental investigations with different types of PCM containers are published

in several cases. Some of these types are sphere [4–7], rectangular [8–12] and shell and tube

designs [13–18]. The largest portion of these investigations is related to the shell and tube

arrangement which comprises more than 70% of the works [3].

Hosseini et al. [13, 15, and 16] studied melting and solidification of a PCM in a shell and tube

heat exchanger for different operating conditions. HTF inlet temperature and its flow rate are the

variables that are studied in the paper. Results indicate that by increasing the HTF inlet

temperature and its flow rate, melting time shortens.

Agyenim et al. [18] investigated melting and solidification of a PCM in a shell and tube heat

exchanger in which the HTF passes through the inner tube and the shell is filled with the PCM,

for different geometric parameters and operating conditions.

Low thermal conductivity is the main defect of PCMs that limits the rate of heat transfer during

melting and solidification processes. To overcome this drawback, various methods are developed

for enhancing the rate of heat transfer in storage systems including PCM microencapsulation

[19, 20], applying multiple arrays of PCMs [21,22], diffusing high thermal conductivity materials

[23,24] and exerting nano enhancement phase change material (NePCM) [16,25]. So many papers

investigated applying extended surfaces including fined tubes and multi-tubes arrangements [32].

To enhance heat transfer rate during melting, Adine and Qarnia [26] investigated a shell and tube

system in which PCMs with different melting temperatures are applied. Two-PCM system

(LHSU2) and single-PCM system (LHSU1) were used during melting process and their thermal

performances were compared. Their results show that by increasing the HTF mass flow rate, the

two-PCM system is more suitable just for the lowest inlet temperature of the HTF. Thus, low

values of mass flow rate and HTF inlet temperature can be handled with multiple-PCM units

more efficiently. Experimental results show that the charging rate of the multiple-PCM

cylindrical capsule is more than the ordinary single-PCM cylindrical capsule. A shell and tube

(LHSU) system utilizing various multiple PCMs was theoretically investigated by Fang and Chen

[27].

Also in order to increase heat transfer surface, Rahimi et al. [11] experimentally studied charging

and discharging processes of RT35 as PCM in a finned heat exchanger and the results of finned

heat exchanger and simple heat exchanger were compared. They found that for the heat

exchanger without fin, increasing HTF inlet temperature leads to a faster pace of charging time

reduction in comparison to the similar heat exchanger enhanced with fins. In addition,

discharging time for the heat exchanger without fins is more affected by mass flow than the one

with fins. Rahimi et al. [8] investigated the effects of mass flow rate and HTF inlet temperature
and fin pitch on a latent heat thermal storage system. They found that in both laminar and

turbulence flows, PCM average temperature increases when finned tubes are applied. The results

show that reduction in fin pitch does not affect PCM average temperature sensibly for both

laminar and turbulent regimes.

Recently triplex tube heat exchanger (TTHX) using a concentric configuration of the tubes has

been studied for thermal energy storage system [30, 31]. The motivation of using a triplex

configuration is that the generated annulus between the two cylindrical tubes provides a larger

heat transfer area. A comparison between a concentric triplex tube and similar double tube

storage, both having the same inner radius and containing the same amount of PCM, indicated

that by employing a triplex tube heat exchanger, the melting time of the PCM reduces

considerably in comparison with the traditional double tube storage system. Mat et al. [30]

numerically studied melting process of RT82 as the PCM in a triplex tube heat exchanger

(TTHX). They used three methods for increasing the rate of heat transfer in the heat exchanger;

internal fin, external fin and implementation of fins at the both sides. Their results show that

charging time in the finned TTHX may decrease to 43.3%.

In another paper, Esapour et al. [32] studied melting of a phase change material (PCM) in a

multi-tube heat exchanger (MTHX). The main purpose of the study was to investigate the effect

of number of inner tubes as a geometrical parameter during charging process. The results show

that by increasing the number of inner tubes from 1 to 4, melt region enlarges faster which leads

to dominated convective heat transfer and higher melting rate. In fact, the increase in number of

the tubes results in 29% reduction in melting time.

In this paper, PCM mass distribution is conducted to find the best mass distribution for reducing

melting time in order to use limited time of solar radiation existence. By distributing the mass,

heat transfer surfaces area enlarges and mass of the PCM in each annulus decreases. Considering

natural convection and PCM mass, there must be an optimized mass distribution for attaining

minimum melting time. There are six different cases in order to examine the effect of mass
distribution. At first, the base case, double-tube, is considered as the base case and a comparison

between cases is conducted. Then PCM is distributed between the inner and outer PCM

containers for achieving the minimum melting time. Temperature, liquid fraction and heat flux

versus time and liquid fraction contours are exhibited and explained.

2. Numerical model

2.1. Governing equations

In order to simulate phase change phenomenon, the enthalpy porosity method for the three

dimensional model [33, 34] is utilized in a multi-tube heat exchanger. Some assumptions have

been made in the mathematical formulation as follow:

 Viscous dissipation term is considered to be zero, thus the temperature distribution and

the viscous incompressible flow in the annulus are described by thermal energy equations

and Navier-Stokes, respectively.

 Flow regime is considered laminar.

 Boussinesq approximation is applied in order to show natural convection effects in the

PCM. So the density of the PCM is considered to be the average of liquid and solid

density. The Boussinesq approximation is as follow :

Therefore, the continuity, momentum and thermal energy equations can be obtained as follows:

Continuity:

(1)

Momentum:

(2)
Energy:

(3)

Sum of the sensible enthalpy ( ) and the latent heat ( ) is equals to the total enthalpy of the

material:

(4)

where sensible enthalpy, , is obtained as follows:

(5)

The latent heat content is written as below where is latent heat of the material:

(6)

Where may be a value in the range of zero to . Zero and L signify solid and liquid phases

respectively. Thus, liquid fraction can be defined as:

(7)

The Darcy's law damping term, , as the source term of the Eq. (2) is added to the momentum

equation in order to include the effects of phase change in the convective heat transfer. This term

is defined as follow:

(8)

The coefficient is a large number, usually in the range of - , that is called mushy

zone constant. In the present study is considered to be constant and is set to [13].
3. Model description and boundary condition

Schematic of the domestic hot water system integrated with PCM heat exchanger is displayed in

Fig. 1. A 3D configuration of the studied physical model is exhibited in Fig. 2. The heat

exchanger unit is 1 meter long. The diameter of the HTF tube is 73 mm which is constant for all

the cases. The dimensions of heat storage system are presented in Table 1 and computational

domain scheme is shown in Fig. 3. Different scenarios of PCM mass distribution are shown in

Fig. 4. It is notable that the code after the dash of the cases’ title is corresponding to the

percentage of the PCM in the inner tube. For example PCM-40 means 40% of the PCM mass is

allocated to the inner tube container. The dimensions of the PCM tubes are carefully calculated to

keep the mass of PCM constant for all the cases. RT50 (Rubitherm Gmbh-Germany) is used as

the PCM in this study. Thermophysical properties of RT50 are presented in Table 2. The initial

system temperature is considered to be 25 . Water, as the HTF transfers the energy gained from

solar collector. Water temperature increases up to 75 in the flat plate collector and is assumed

to remain constant until the HTF enters heat exchanger. Total mass flow rate of the HTF is

considered to be 0.087 and the mass of PCM is fixed for all the cases. Outer wall is set to

be adiabatic.

Fig. 1. Schematic of the domestic hot water system integrated with PCM
 PCM

HTF

Fig. 2. 3D view of the studied Heat Exchanger

Table 1. Dimensions and mass distribution for all cases

Case Radius of PCM Mass PCM Mass in Total surface

Radius of inner outer tube in inner tube outer tube [m2]

tube (r1) [mm]
(r3) [mm] [kg] [kg]

PCM-00 - 85.8 0 5 0.018023

PCM-20 20.2 83.4 1 4 0.019305

PCM-40 28.5 80.9 2 3 0.020587

PCM-60 34.9 78.3 3 2 0.021869

PCM-80 40.4 75.7 4 1 0.023151

PCM-100 45.1 - 5 0 0.016741

r2
r1

r3

Fig. 3 schematic 2D view of heat exchanger

Table 2. Thermophysical properties of RT5

Properties Values

4. numerical procedure and validation

Finite volume method technique is used for discretizing the governing equations of the model. In
order to solve the governing equations, SIMPLE algorithm was employed [35] within a 3D in-
house developed code. The flowchart of the developed code is presented in Fig. 5. Map face
meshing method is applied on meshing style and Grid number and time step for each case are
listed in Table 3 and Table 4, respectively. Grid sizes and time steps that are selected for each
case are shaded in each table.
The resulting curves that confirm the independency of the solution to the grid number and time
step for the case PCM-00 are shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 7 exhibits a cross section view of the case
PCM-40 heat exchanger in which the grids are shown. Under relaxation factor values are set to
0.3, 0.6, 1 and 0.9 for pressure, velocity, energy and liquid fraction, respectively. The values of
the residual convergence for continuity, momentum, and energy are set to .
Table 3. suitable Grid Numbers

Case Grid numbers

PCM-00 53000 74000 87000 110000 130000

PCM-20 55000 70000 85000 100000 133000

PCM-40 54000 72000 86000 105000 132000

PCM-60 52000 73000 89000 103000 135000

PCM-80 53000 75000 86000 104000 130000

PCM-100 57000 73000 88000 110000 134000

Table 4. suitable Time steps

Case Time step (s)

PCM-00 0.01 0.02 0.05 0.1 0.2

PCM-20 0.01 0.02 0.05 0.1 0.2

PCM-40 0.01 0.02 0.05 0.1 0.2

PCM-60 0.01 0.02 0.05 0.1 0.2

PCM-80 0.01 0.02 0.05 0.1 0.2

PCM-100 0.01 0.2 0.05 0.1 0.2

PCM-00 PCM-20 PCM-40

PCM-60 PCM-80 PCM-100

Fig. 4. Scenarios of PCM mass distribution

 Start
Start

Input materials properties and initial guess

Solving discretized momentum equation

s s
Set:
sdsSolving sds
pressure correction equation

Correct pressure and velocities

Solve discretized energy equation

Stop

Fig. 5. Flowchart of the developed code

 (a) (b)

Fig. 6. Independency verification of PCM-20 (a) Grid number independency (b) Time step

independency

Some of obtained results have been compared with the experimental data reported by Mat et al.

[30] to validate the computational model. Fig. 8 shows the liquid fraction versus time for both the

present study and the cited reference. The comparison shows that the results of the present study

are close enough to those of Mat et al. [30]. In order for more assurance of the precession of the

simulation another validation is presented in Fig. 9. Temperature for specific points versus time is

compared with the experimental data reported by Jesumathy et al. [36]. Considering the Fig. 9

and comparing the results, an acceptable match is observed [36].

 PCM

HTF

PCM

(b) (a)

Fig. 7. (a) Cross section view and (b) 3D view of the computational grid of PCM-40

Fig. 8. Comparison of the average temperature profile between the present work and Mat et al.

[30]
 Fig. 9. Comparison of temperature profile for different locations between present study and

Jesumathy et al. [36]

5. Results and discussion

Liquid fraction contours of the cases PCM-00 and PCM-100 for the middle section of heat

exchanger are shown in Fig. 10. Considering Fig. 10, it can be deduced that the dominated

mechanism at initial moments of the process is conduction and as the process progresses, the

melting front enlarges and convection becomes the leading mechanism. It can also be seen that

after 55 minutes, there is no solid PCM in the PCM-100 case while small amount of PCM

remains at the bottom of the case PCM-00. This observation reveals that there are still natural

convection consequences in the case PCM-100 when the last pieces of solid PCM vanishes.

However, the consequence of convection near the remaining solid is negligible enough that the

solid PCM persists in the shell even after 55 minutes. This presence of natural convection heat

transfer, as shown in Fig. 10, results in a reduction in total melting time of the PCM-100 with

respect to PCM-00.
PCM-100
PCM-00 10 minute 20 minute 30 minute 40 minute 50 minute 55 minute

Fig. 10. Liquid fraction contours for PCM-00 and PCM-100

Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 respectively show the variation of liquid fraction, temperature and heat flux

versus time for both PCM-00 and PCM-100. According to the Fig. 11, before liquid fraction of 80

percent, the slope of PCM-00 liquid fraction is more than that of PCM-100. According to Fig. 12,

this trend of variation until t=30 min is due to higher heat flux area of the PCM-00, in comparison

with PCM-100 (in which 80 percent of the PCM is melted). On the other hand, regarding Fig. 11

which also shows the temperature of the phase change material, this higher heat flux is sensible.

In fact, during this portion of time the average temperature of the PCM-00 is about 10 centigrade

degree less than PCM-100 which results in higher temperature difference between the HTF and

the PCM that increases the heat flux. After the moment, the slop of the PCM-00 curve reduces in

a way that the total melting time of this case exceeds that of PCM-100. This variation can be

explained by considering the Fig. 12. In fact, after t=30 min, the heat absorption of PCM-00

reduces more dramatically with respect to PCM-100. This accelerated reduction in heat flux of

the PCM-00 is due to the temperature increase of the PCM and the resultant temperature

difference reduction between the two mediums.

 Fig. 11. Liquid fraction and PCM average temperature versus time for PCM-00 and PCM-100

As is clear from Fig. 11, in the melting range, a reduction in the slope of the PCM-00 occurs

while this reduction doesn’t hold for the PCM-100. In fact when the inserted PCM in the PCM-

100 reaches to the melting temperature, 40 percent of the PCM has been melted. In fact in this

selection the transferred heat is absorbed via both sensible and latent forms. The sensible heat

absorption by the PCM results in the PCM temperature increase. However, considering the PCM-

00, at the initiation of the melting range, 20 percent of the PCM has been melted; therefore the

PCM absorbs energy mostly in latent form which doesn’t rise the PCM temperature.
 Fig. 12. Heat flux through PCM walls versus time for PCM-00 and PCM-100

Liquid fraction versus time and total melting time for all the cases are shown in Fig.13 and Fig.

14. As can be seen in Fig. 14, by changing the PCM distribution between the annuluses, the total

melting time varies. Fig. 13 indicates that as the amount of the PCM in each of the annuluses

reduces the melting time of the related part diminishes which seems to be obvious. It is

interesting that the total melting time assigns to none of the extreme cases but to the case PCM-

40, in which the melting time of the inner annulus almost equals that of the outer one. It can be

concluded from Fig. 14 that there is 52% reduction in the melting time for the case PCM-40

,compared to the worse case.

 Fig. 13. Liquid fraction curvature for all cases

80
70
60
Melting Time (min)

50
40 pcm-in
30 pcm-out
20 pcm-total

10
0
PCM-00 PCM-20 PCM-40 PCM-60 PCM-80 PCM-100
cases

Fig. 14. Melting time for all cases

Fig. 15 shows liquid fraction contours for the cases that PCM mass is distributed for the middle

section of heat exchanger. Considering the figure, it can be concluded that by decreasing the

PCM in outer annulus, melting rate increases which is due to the reduction of the PCM in outer
side where that heat transfer area constant and due to the small thickness of the PCM, the leading

heat transfer mechanism is conduction. As can be seen in the inner tube, although the heat

transfer area is enlarged, the effect of the amount of PCM is more pronounced on the melting

process.

PCM-20 PCM-40 PCM-60 PCM-80

4 min
8 min
12 min
16 min

Fig 15. Liquid fraction contours for mass distributed cases

Liquid fraction versus time of both inner and outer sections of the case PCM-40 is shown in Fig.

16 separately. As can be seen, the slope of the outer-annulus-related curve is more than its

corresponding counterpart until the moment of 80 percent progression of phase change. After this

moment the slope of the outer-annulus-related curve reduces. This trend, as shown, holds for all

the cases. However, the only difference is that in this case, the distribution leads to almost equal

melting in the both annuluses. The slope of this curve is more than the case in which all the PCM

is in the inner annulus and the total melting time of this optimum distribution is not as long as the

case in which all the material fills the outer annulus.

 Fig. 16. PCM liquid fraction curve for inner and outer tube for PCM-40

Fig. 17 illustrates PCM liquid fraction along the heat exchanger in outer section of the case PCM-

40 in a 3D view. As can be seen in the Fig. 17, as the HTF passes through the pipe along the heat

exchanger liquid fraction of the PCM decreases. By comparing among all the cases, it reveals that

this trend is the same for all cases. This is due to the fact that the HTF loses energy as flows along

the heat exchanger. Therefore, the flow reaches its minimum energy level at the end of the heat

exchanger so the least liquid fraction would occur at the ending section of heat exchanger.
5 min
15 min
20 min
25 min

Fig. 17. 3D PCM liquid fraction along heat exchange of the outer tube for PCM-40 r
6. Conclusion

In the present paper a PCM heat exchanger integrated in a solar water heater system was studied.

Charging process of RT-50 as the phase change material on a shell and multi-PCM-tube by

heated water from flat plate solar collector is studied to find the best PCM distribution between

inner and outer annulus. The following conclusions are drawn:

 Heat transfer rate in the case that all the PCM is in the inner tube, is more stable than the

case in which the whole PCM is in the outer shell.

 The mechanism of heat transfer in the PCM is a combination of convection and

conduction. In fact, initially, heat transfer is dominated by conduction and afterward,

considering melting pattern of phase change, it is obvious that convection governs the

heat transfer phenomenon.

 Melting time in a simple shell and tube is considerably large but by distributing the PCM

between inner tube and outer shell, heat transfer surface enlarges and in a specific

arrangement in which 40% of PCM mass is in inner tube, minimum melting time is

achieved representing 52% reduction in melting time.

 Maximum PCM temperature is achieved in the case that all the PCM is in the inner tube

which is higher than the one which assigns the whole PCM to the outer shell.
Nomenclatures

Specific heat capacity (J/kg. K)

Gravity (m/s2)

Sensible enthalpy (J/kg)

Total enthalpy (J)

Thermal conductivity (W/m. K)

Latent heat (J/kg)

Source term

Temperature (K)

Velocity vector (m/s)

Greek symbols

Expansion coefficient (1/K)

Dynamic viscosity (Pa. s)

Liquid fraction

Density (kg/m3)

Subscripts

Mushy zone

Melting

Solid

Liquid
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Highlights:

 Melting process of PCM is numerically investigated in a multi-tube heat

exchanger
 Reduction in melting time is preferred to benefit maximum solar radiation
 Effect of mass distribution of a PCM in a multi-tube heat exchanger
 By specific PCM mass distribution 52% reduction in melting time achieved