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Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Thermal energy storage performance of paraffin in a novel

tube-in-shell system
Mithat Akgün a, Orhan Aydın a,*
, Kamil Kaygusuz b

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080 Trabzon, Turkey
b
Department of Chemistry, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080 Trabzon, Turkey

Received 8 February 2007; accepted 27 May 2007

Available online 9 June 2007

Abstract

In this study, the latent heat thermal energy storage system of the shell-and-tube type is analyzed experimentally. A novel design for
the storage unit whose geometry is consistent with the melting/solidification characteristics of phase change materials (PCMs) is intro-
duced. Three kinds of paraffin with different melting temperatures are used as PCMs. Water is used as the heat transfer fluid (HTF). At
first, the thermophysical properties of the paraffins used are determined through the differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis. The
effects of the Reynolds number and the Stefan number on the melting and solidification behaviors are determined. It is disclosed the
novel tube-in-shell storage geometry introduced in this study suggests promising results.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: PCM; Paraffin; Thermal energy storage; Melting; Solidification; Experimental

1. Introduction readers to see the excellent reference books by Lane [1],

The discrepancy between energy supply and demand can
be overcome by the implementation of a proper energy
storage system. There are three main methods for storing
the thermal energy: sensible, latent and thermochemical.
The latent thermal energy storage employing a PCM is
the most effective way of the thermal energy storage due
to its advantages of high energy storage density and its iso-
thermal operating characteristics during solidification and
melting processes. In a latent heat storage system, energy
is stored during melting while it is recovered during solidi-
fication of a PCM.
Recently, a number of studies have been performed to
examine the overall thermal behaviors of various latent
heat thermal energy storage systems. In order to have a
better view on the studies existing in the literature, we refer
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 462 377 2974; fax: +90 462 325 5526.
E-mail address: oaydin@ktu.edu.tr (O. Aydın).
Garg et al. [2], and Dinçer and Rosen [3] and the review
articles by Abhat [4], Hasnain [5], Faith [6], Zalba et al.
[7], Ettouney et al. [8], Farid et al. [9] and Sharma and
Sagara [10].
In this experimental study, three different types of paraf-
fin with different melting temperatures are used as PCM.
Recently, several works have been carried out in order to
study the thermal characteristics of paraffin during solidifi-
cation and melting processes [11–21]. These studies show
that commercial-grade paraffin wax and other pure paraffin
have stable properties after 1000–2000 cycles.
In this experimental study, it is aimed at developing a
passive heat transfer enhancement technique, which is
based on the modification of the storage geometry. The
storage geometry suggested is the annular space between
a tube in which the HTF (water) is flowing and a conical
shell (a tube-in-shell heat exchanger system). Enhancement
is achieved by tilting the outer surface of the storage con-
tainer, i.e. the surface of the outer shell with a tilting angle
of 5.

1359-4311/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2007.05.013
406 M. Akgün et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413

Nomenclature

c specific heat (kJ/kg K) Subscripts

D diameter of the HTF tube (m) HTF heat transfer fluid
g gravitational acceleration (m2 s1) i inlet for the HTF
Gr Grashof number l liquid
H latent heat capacity of PCM (kJ/kg) m melting
L height of the storage container (m) o outlet for the HTF
m_ mass flow rate of HTF (kg s1) w wall
Q heat transfer rate PCM phase change material
r radial distance s solid
Re Reynolds number m melting
Ste Stefan number
T temperature (K)
z axial distance

Greek symbols
b the thermal expansion coefficient (1/K)
l the dynamic viscosity (N s m2)
m the kinematical viscosity (m2 s1)

2. Experimental study Table 1

Thermophysical properties of the paraffin types considered in the study
2.1. DSC thermal analysis of PCMs Type of Melting Total latent Specific heat
paraffin temperature heat (kJ/kg) (kJ/kg C)
range (C)
Three different types of paraffin, P42-44 (P1), P46-48 Solid Liquid
(P2), P56-58 (P3), are used as PCMs, which are supplied 25 C 80 C
from the MERCK. Paraffin is an attractive, chemically sta- Merck P42-44 (P1) 37.80–44.23 249 1.929 2.383
ble and non-toxic material without regular degradation Merck P46-48 (P2) 40.22–46.92 234 1.929 2.228
Merck P56-58 (P3) 48.86–58.06 250 1.84 2.37
with its high latent heat storage capacities over a narrow
temperature range. Melting temperatures and latent heats
of melting of paraffins used as PCMs were measured by a lation pump, the PCM storage container, HTF tube, a data
DSC instrument. The analyses were performed between acquisition unit, and a PC for data analysis consist the
the temperatures of 0 and 80 C at 5 C/min heating rate. experimental setup. Water is used as the HTF. The PCM
A 5 mg of sample was sealed in an aluminum pan. The is kept in the annular space between an inner tube and a
melting temperature range of the sample was taken as onset concentrically placed outer shell (tube-in-shell geometry).
temperature and peak temperature of DSC curve. The This geometry is a very common storage geometry studied
onset temperature was obtained by drawing a line at the in the existing literature. In this study, experiments are car-
point of maximum slope of the leading edge of the DSC ried out for this geometry at first. Then, the shell of the
curve and extrapolating base line on the same side as the storage container is inclined with an inclination angle of
leading edge of the curve. The latent heat of the sample 5. The reason why such a geometry modification has been
was determined as total of latent heat of solid–solid phase applied on the storage geometry will be explained below.
change and latent heat of solid–liquid phase change. The The mass of PCM filled in the storage container is 2.2 kg.
total latent heat was determined by numerical integration The tube with a diameter of 28 mm is made of copper while
of the area under the peaks which represent solid–solid the outer shell is made of stainless steel. For the cylindrical
phase change and solid–liquid phase change. The thermo- storage geometry, the radius of the shell is 47.3 mm. For
physical properties of the paraffin types used in the study the storage geometry with a shell angle of 5, the lower
are given in Table 1. Fig. 1 shows results of the DSC anal- radius of the shell is 28 mm while its upper radius is
ysis for each paraffin type tested. 66.7 mm. The height of the storage container is kept con-
stant at 465 mm for each storage geometry in order to have
the same heat transfer surface area. The constant tempera-
2.2. Experimental apparatus and procedure ture water bath controlling the inlet temperature of the
HTF has a temperature range of 20–100 C with accuracy
Fig. 2 depicts a schematic view of the experimental of ±0.1 C. The unit can deliver up to 0.5 kg/s of hot water.
setup. Mainly, a constant temperature water bath, a circu- Twenty four T-type thermocouples are used to measure the
 M. Akgün et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413 407

Fig. 1. Results of the DSC analysis for three different types of the paraffin considered (a) P1, (b) P2, (c) P3.

b
cold water inlet

h e k
1

a 4
8
11 j

f
10
9
2
i
7

5
g c
d

1. the hot water tank 6. rotameter

2. constant temperature water bath 7. heat transfer tube(28”)
3. constant temperature controller 8. heat storage container
4. Pt100 thermocouples 9. thermos
5. water pump 10. data logger
11. PC

Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental setup.

temperature field in the PCM. All the thermocouples are A detailed view of the locations where the thermocouples
calibrated before use and they are observed to have a mea- are inserted is shown in Fig. 3. Other temperature measure-
suring range of 10 to 200 C and an accuracy of ±0.2 C. ments include the inlet/outlet HTF temperatures and the
408 M. Akgün et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413

Ø137.36 Table 2
The results of the uncertainty analysis
Parameter Estimated uncertainty (%)
Tç
Mass flow rate 1.5
T64 T63T62 T61 Reynolds number 1.5
T6 Stefan number 3.6
9 14 14 Heat transfer rate 14.2
45

T54 T53T52 T51

T5
6 14 14 4m_
Re ¼ ð1Þ
pDl
Ste ¼ cPCM ðT i  T m Þ=H ð2Þ
100

where m_ is the mass flow rate of the HTF, D is the diameter

T43 T42 T41 of the HTF, l is the dynamic viscosity, cPCM is the specific
T4 heat of the PCM, Ti is the inlet temperature of the HTF,
1114 Tm is the melting temperature of the PCM and H is the la-
tent heat of fusion.
A rigorous experimental error analysis is necessary to
100

prove the accuracy of the experiments. Therefore, an

uncertainty analysis has been performed using the method
described by Holman [22]. The estimated uncertainty val-
T32 T31
T3 ues for some parameters are given in Table 2.
14 14
3. Experimental measurements and discussion
100

3.1. Thermal properties of PCMs

T22 T21 In the present study, the paraffin waxes with different
T2 5˚ melting temperature were used as PCM. Thermophysical
8 properties of the PCMs such as the melting temperature
range (C), total latent heat (kJ/kg) and the specific heats
(kJ/kg C) for solid and liquid phases of the PCMs were
100

measured using DSC thermal analysis technique. The

T1 Tg
T11
14
Ø28
Fig. 3. The points of the temperature measurements inside the PCM.
ambient temperature. A 32-channel data logger is used to
collect the temperature measurements. It stores the entire
temperature set once every minute. The mass flow rate is
measured by a rotameter with a degree of calibration
within ±1% accuracy. The charging process is started by
flowing the hot water through the HTF tube. This process
is assumed to end when all the temperature recordings in
the PCM region present higher values than the melting
temperature of the PCM. Immediately after the charging
process, the stored energy is extracted by passing the cold
water.
Before we proceed to the next section, we introduce two
fundamental dimensionless numbers: the Reynolds number
and the Stefan number:
DSC heating curves of the PCMs are shown in Fig. 1. As
seen from DSC thermograms, the heating curves consist
of two peaks. The most important peaks represent the
solid–liquid phase transitions of the paraffins as the small
peaks show the solid–solid phase transitions of the paraf-
fins. Thermal properties evaluated from the DSC curves
are given in Table 1. Taking into account of these DSC
results, it can be noteworthy that the paraffins (P1, P2
and P3) are promising PCMs for thermal energy storage
applications in terms of their suitable melting temperatures
and high latent heat capacities.
As it is explained earlier, experiments are conducted for
the tube-in-shell geometry at first. For this geometry, it is
observed that PCM in the lower outer region of the annu-
lus take much longer times than the other regions to melt.
Therefore, the total melting time of the whole PCM pro-
longs. Melting starts in the lower region of the storage con-
tainer close to the inner wall and, then, molten PCM
ascends to the top part of the storage container as a result
of natural convection currents. The melt region extends
radially upward (i.e. boundary layer develops along the
inner wall). This type of melt region extension leads to a
shape of truncated conical annulus at the intermediate
 M. Akgün et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413 409

steps of melting. In order to respond this melting behavior typical transients of the temperature at different points
and to decrease the total melting time by enhancing the given in Fig. 3 for each PCM considered. For the brevity,
heat transfer in the PCM, the lower outer region of the only the results for the mass flow rate of 8 kg/min are
annulus where melting prolongs has been removed by tilt- depicted. Fig. 4a and b include the results at Ti = 70 C
ing the outer shell with an inclination angle of 5. For the for P1 and P2, while Fig. 4c includes those at Ti = 70 C
brevity, the results regarding to that the cylindrical storage for P3. The other values of Ti and m_ suggest similar results.
with an inclination angle of 0 has not been included, but With an increase of Ti, the solidification will require smal-
comparison with this angle has been given. ler times at any point considered. Two regions coexist dur-
Experiments have been conducted to determine the ing the charging process, which are: the melted PCM
charging and discharging behaviors of the PCM unit. region in the liquid phase and the non-melted PCM region
The experiments are performed for various inlet tempera- in the solid phase. In the solid region, the conduction inside
tures and mass flow rates of the HTF, water. For the the solid matrix of the PCM is responsible for the heat
charging experiments, four different values for the inlet transfer process inside and this region receives heat from
temperature of the water have been tested for each PCM the melted part by convection. When the solid matrix of
examined, which are all set above the melting temperature the PCM melts, convection mechanism of the heat transfer
of the paraffin under consideration: Ti = 60, 65, 70 and drives the recirculation in the melted PCM, which is due to
75 C for P1 and P2 (P42-44 and P46-48); Ti = 70, 75, 80 the buoyancy forces induced by the density gradients as a
and 85 C for P3 (P56-58). Three different values of the result of temperature differences. The recirculation inside
mass flow rate of the HTF are examined: m_ ¼ 4, 6 and enhances mixing and heat transfer within the molten
8 kg/min. Following the charging experiments, discharging PCM, which can be explained by the fact that the points
experiments are started, which are carried out for the same near the upper part reach to the melting temperatures in
mass flow rates only at Ti = 20 C. In the following, the shorter times than the lower points do. Note that the den-
results for the charging and discharging experiments are sity of the molten PCM is lower than that in the PCM in
given separately. the solid phase. At larger operating times, the region of
the molten PCM extends to cover larger regions of the
3.2. Melting process PCM container.
In order to have a better view on the melting character-
Due to the symmetrical geometry and symmetrical istic of the PCM, the axial variation of the temperature is
boundary conditions, symmetrical temperature distribu- shown in Fig. 5 at different times at r = 28 mm for each
tions inside the PCM have been obtained. Fig. 4 illustrates PCM at different values of the Reynolds and Stefan num-
Temperature, T( oC)

70 T2 70
Temperature, T ( C)

70
Temperature, T( oC)

60 60 T2 T2
T 21 60
50
50 T 21 50
40
40 T 22 40
T 22 30 T 21,T 22
30 20 30 z=100 mm
z = 100 mm z=100 mm
20 10 20
0 60 120 180 0 30 60 90 120 150 0 60 120 180 240 300
Time, t (min) Time, t (min)
Time, t (min)

70
Temperature, T( oC)

70
Temperature,T ( oC)
Temperature, T( oC)

70 T3
60 T3 60 T3
60
50 T 31 50 T 31 50
T 32 40
40 30 40 T 31,T 32
T 32
30 z=200 mm 20 z=200 mm 30 z=200 mm
20 10 20
0 60 120 0 30 60 90 120 150 0 60 120 180 240 300
Time, t (min) Time, t (min) Time, t (min)
75
T5
Temperature, T ( C)
Temperature, T( oC)

70 70
65
o
Temperature T( C)

60 60
o

55 50 50
T 5,T 51,T 52,T 53,T 54
45 40 T 5,T 51,T 52,T 53,T 54 40
T 51,T 52,T 53,T 54 30
30
35 z =400 mm 20
20 z=400 mm z=400 mm
25 10 10
0 30 60 90 120 150 0 30 60 90 120 0 60 120 180 240 300
Time, t (min) Time, t (min) Time, t (min)

Fig. 4. Transient temperatures during melting at some typical points.

410 M. Akgün et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413

80
T11 T21 T31 T41 T51 T61 to be around 8.5 · 105, which is in the laminar flow range
Time (min)
70 for the natural convection in enclosures.
0
The total melting time is defined as the time required for
Temperature, T( C)

60 20
o

40
all the points inside the PCM to reach the upper limit value
50
60 of melting temperature range from the identical solid state
40
80 temperature. The effects of the Reynolds number and the
30 100 Stefan number on the total melting time are given in Figs.
20 120 6 and 7. As seen from Fig. 6, the Reynolds number does
r =28 mm, Re=17160, Ste=0.257 140
10 not have a considerable effect on the total melting time.
0 100 200 300 400
From its definition, the Reynolds number is directly pro-
Axial distance, z (mm)
portional to the mass flow rate of the HTF. Therefore,
T11 T21 T31 T41 T51 T61 an increase in the Reynolds number means an increase in
60
the mass flow rate of the HTF. In fact, increasing the Rey-
Time (min)
nolds number or the mass flow rate of the HTF results in
Temperature, T( C)

50 0
o

60
increasing enthalpy flow. However, higher pumping powers
40 120 will be required for higher values of the Reynolds number.
180 Therefore, lower values for the Reynolds number or the
30
240 mass flow rate should be chosen for an energy-efficient
300
r =28 mm, Re=6852, Ste=0.097 thermal energy storage process.
330
20 From Fig. 7, we see that increasing the Stefan number
0 100 200 300 400
Axial distance, z (mm) considerably decreases the total melting time. Actually,
90 from its definition, the Stefan number is directly propor-
T11 T21 T31 T41 T51 T61
tional to the difference between the inlet temperature of
80
Time (min) the HTF and the melting temperature of the PCM. For a
Temperature, T( C)

70
o

0
60 30
60 240
50 T11
Total melting time, t (min)

90 T22
40 180
120
30 r= 28 mm, Re=14911, Ste=0.265 150
180 120
20 T54
0 100 200 300 400
Axial distance, z ( mm) 60
Ste=0.142
Fig. 5. Axial temperature distributions during melting at r = 28 mm for
0
each PCM at different values of Re and Ste. 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000
Re
bers. The axial distance is defined to extend from the bot-
tom surface to upper surface of the storage container. With 300 T11
Total melting time, t (min)

an increase in time, PCM goes through heating of the solid T22

240
matrix due to conduction, melting, and heating of the mol-
ten PCM to temperatures above its melting point. As seen 180

and expected, higher temperatures are observed near the 120

HTF tube surface as a result of immediate melting of the T54
60
PCM. Since the flow in the melt region is driven by buoy- Ste= 0.142
0
ancy forces, it will be useful to define the Grashof number, 6000 9000 12000
Gr, which is a dimensionless number for the natural con- Re
vection flows. The Grashof number, accounting for the
240
natural convection developed in the melt region, is defined
Total melting time, t (min)

as: 180 T11

gbðT w  T PCM;m ÞL3 T22
Gr ¼ 120
m2
where g is the gravitational acceleration, b is the thermal 60 T54
expansion coefficient, Tw is the wall temperature, TPCM,m Ste=0.265
is the melting temperature of the PCM, L is the height of 0
9000 12000 15000 18000 21000
the storage container and m is the kinematical viscosity of
Re
the liquid PCM. For the PCMs examined and the experi-
mental conditions studied, a typical value of Gr is found Fig. 6. Effect of the Reynolds number on the total melting time.
 M. Akgün et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413 411

250 direction of HTF is from the top to the bottom). Immedi-

4 kg/min
ately after the charging or melting process, the discharging
Total melting time, t (min)
200
experiments are initiated by passing the cold water. Fig. 8
150
illustrates time variations of the temperatures at different
T11 points represented in Fig. 3 for Ti = 20 C and m_ ¼
100 T22 4 kg=min for P1 (Fig. 8a and b) and P2 (Fig. 8c and d),
m_ ¼ 8 kg=min for P3 (Fig. 8f and e). Initially, the PCM is
50 T54
in the liquid phase. At earlier times, abrupt changes in
0 temperature are observed due to larger temperature
0.13 0.18 0.23 0.28 difference between the PCM and the HTF, which are fol-
Ste
lowed by slow changes. Again, in the beginning, the tem-
350 perature difference between the inlet and outlet is higher
4 kg/min which decreases gradually then. Until each point consid-
Total melting time, t (min)

300
250
ered in the PCM reaches its solidification temperature,
there will be a sensible-type heat transfer inside the PCM.
200
Here, the downward cold stream of cooling water will
150 T11 result in a natural convection recirculation inside the
100 T22
PCM, whose direction is opposed to that of the melting
50 experiments.
T54
0 Neglecting heat losses to surrounding from sides and
0.09 0.14 0.19 0.24
Ste upper and lower parts of the storage container, the rate
of heat transfer from HTF to PCM will be equal to
480 4 kg/min
enthalpy change of HTF between inlet and exit, which is
Total melting time, t (min)

420
360
300
240
180
120
60
0 ical variation of the total amount of heat received by PCM
0.08 0.12
Fig. 7. Effect of the Stefan number on the total melting time.
specific type of the PCM, the melting temperature will be
constant, and thus, an increase in the inlet temperature of
the HTF will lead to an increase in the Stefan number.
The higher the inlet temperature is, the higher the heat
transfer rates are as a result of increasing temperature
differences between the inner wall of the storage container
and the bulk of the flowing HTF. As seen from Fig. 7a, a
5 C-increment of the inlet temperature from 70 C to
75 C presented lower differences at the melting time (i.e.
an increase at Ste from 0.208 to 0.256) compared to that
from 60 C to 65 C (i.e. an increase at Ste from 0.132 to
0.18) and that from 65 C to 70 C (i.e. an increase at Ste
from 0.18 to 0.208). Since increasing inlet temperature
means higher energy input, keeping the HTF inlet temper-
atures at the optimum levels is important for an energy-effi-
cient thermal energy storage process. Similar behaviors
have been observed for P2 and P3, see Fig. 7b and c.
3.3. Solidification process
Discharging or solidification experiments are performed
in the reverse direction of the melting experiment (i.e. the
equal to
Q ¼ mc
_ HTF ðT i  T o Þ ð3Þ
T11
where m_ is the mass flow rate of the HTF, cHTF is the spe-
T22
cific heat of the HTF and Ti and To are the inlet and outlet
T54 temperatures of the HTF, respectively. Fig. 9 shows a typ-
0.16 0.2 0.24 0.28 with time for P1 at some specific values of the Reynolds
Ste
and Stefan numbers. As expected, the total amount of heat
received by PCM will increase in time.
Fig. 10 compares the total melting times for the two dif-
ferent storage geometry studied. It is disclosed that the one
with 0 requires longer times than that with 5 does. This
indicates that the storage geometry with the shell inclina-
tion angle of 5 is superior to that with the shell inclination
angle of 0, suggesting about a 20% decrease in the total
melting time. Note such an enhancement is obtained with-
out any extra costs (the same values of the total mass of the
PCM, the storage volume, the convective heat transfer
coefficient of the HTF, the heat transfer surface area, the
inlet temperature and mass of the HTF).
4. Conclusions
An experimental investigation has been carried out in
order to study melting (i.e. charging) and solidification
(i.e. discharging) characteristics of three different types of
paraffin as a phase change material. A shell-in-tube thermal
energy storage unit has been considered. The PCM is
placed in an annular space between a tube in which the
heat transfer fluid (here, water) is flowing and a concentri-
cally placed outer shell. In order to improve the heat trans-
fer during the melting and solidification, the shell surface,
i.e. the outer surface of the PCM storage container is
412 M. Akgün et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413

z=100 mm 70 z=300 mm
60

Temperature, T( C)
Temperature, T( C)
60

o
o
50 T21 T22 T41 ,T42 ,T43
50
40
40
30
T2 30 T4
20 20
10 10
0 120 240 360 480 0 120 240 360 480
Time, t (min) Time, t (min)

60 70
z=100 mm z = 300 mm
60
Temperature, T( C)

Temperature, T( C)
50
o

o
T21 ,T22 50 T41 ,T42 ,T43
40
40
30 30
T2 T4
20 20

10 10
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 0 60 120 180 240 300 360
Time, t (min) Time, t (min)

80
z = 100 mm 80 z = 300 mm
70
Temperature, T( C)
Temperature, T ( C)

70
o

T41 ,T42 ,T43

o

60 T21 ,T22 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
T2 T4
20 20
10 10
0 60 120 180 0 60 120 180
Time, t (min) Time, t (min)

Fig. 8. Transient temperatures during solidification at some typical points.

1600 280
P 42-44
260
0O
1200
5O
Qtot (kJ/min)

240
Plot 1 Regr
Total melting time [min ]

220
800
200
400 180
Re = 14769, Ste =0.18
160
0
0 60 120 180 140
Time, t (min)
120
Fig. 9. Time variation of the heat transfer rate per minute stored during
100
melting.
80
58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76
inclined with an inclination angle of 5. The melting and Inlet temperature [ O C]

solidification behaviors are discussed in detail. Melting Fig. 10. Variation of the total melting time with the inlet temperature for
started in the below region close to the inner wall and, then, the two different storage geometries used.
molten PCM ascended to the top part of the PCM con-
tainer as a result of natural convection currents. In the phase and the non-melted PCM region in the solid phase.
following, two regions coexisted during the charging pro- In the solid region, the conduction inside the solid matrix
cess, which were: the melted PCM region in the liquid of the PCM was shown to be responsible for the heat trans-
 M. Akgün et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 405–413
fer process inside and this region received heat from the
melted part by convection. In the melt region, convection
mechanism of the heat transfer was disclosed to drive the
recirculation inside the melted the PCM.
Acknowledgement
The authors greatly acknowledge the financial support
of this work by the Karadeniz Technical University
Research Fund under Grant Nos. 2001.112.3.2 and 2002.
111.002.4.
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