Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2021
26th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
CFD ANALYSIS OF A SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER AS THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE UNIT
Submission Author:
Diogo Zidan , MG
Co-Authors:
Diogo Zidan, Cristiana Brasil Maia, Caio Passos, Diogo Vilaça Teixeira, Robert Pietzsch
Presenter: Diogo Zidan
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2021.COB2021-0149
Abstract
Technological evolution, together with the growth of the world population, has increased the demand for energy. By seeking a solution based on renewable energy sources, energy storage systems using shell-and-tube heat exchangers are disposed as a feasible and low initial investment option. This unit consists of filling the region between the shell and tube with a phase change material (PCM), and through the exchanger tube, flows a heat transfer fluid (HTF). The system charging stage is based on heat injection into the exchanger through the HTF, causing the fusion of the PCM, which, because of its high latent heat, is able to store this introduced energy. A three-dimensional numerical model of a heat exchanger was developed using a smooth tube and it was pursued to improve the thermal performance of the exchanger by the application of circular and helical fins. The CFD analysis, performed using the ANSYS-Fluent 19.0 software, of the three tube configurations, confirmed the improvement in performance when inserting fins into the tube, making the PCM reach its melting temperature about 2000 seconds faster and thus increasing the melting percentage up to 16.76% after the 9000 seconds of simulation. Thereby, it was concluded that the heat exchanger using circular finned tube achieved the best performance and is the most suitable for practical applications, due to its ability to achieve total melting of the PCM in less time and reach higher temperatures, besides being simpler to manufacture when compared to the tube with helical fin.
Keywords
Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger, Phase Change Material, CFD analysis
