LAUSR

Abstract Phase change materials (PCM) are prominently used as storage material in thermal energy storage (TES) systems. The inherent property of low thermal conductivity of PCM affects the charging/discharging rate and thermal performance of TES systems. Performance enhancement techniques like the introduction of fins, nanoparticles, and hybrid methods are therefore used in TES systems. In the present study, the effect of various geometric parameters of PCM is first analyzed on the thermal performance of a TES system keeping its storage capacity the same. An optimized geometric configuration of the TES system with significantly better thermal performance is obtained. The total melting time of PCM is found to be just 44 min for the TES system with optimized geometric configuration as compared to 244 min of the base case. A comparative analysis of the TES system with different enhancement techniques is also performed in the present work. Total melting time of PCM for the TES system involving fin, graphene nano-plates (GNPs), and hybrid method (a combination of fin and GNP) is found to be 180 min, 116 min, and 92 min, respectively. The thermal performance of the TES system with optimized geometric configuration is found to be significantly better compared to the TES systems using any of the performance enhancement techniques. It is thus recommended to put more emphasis on the proper selection of the geometric parameters while designing any TES system rather than relying on performance enhancement techniques which have many other issues associated with them.