Accepted Manuscript

Solidification process of hybrid nano-enhanced phase change

material in a LHTESS with tree-like branching fin in the presence
of thermal radiation

K.H. Hosseinzadeh, M. Alizadeh, D.D. Ganji

PII: S0167-7322(18)35259-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2018.11.109
Reference: MOLLIQ 10019
To appear in: Journal of Molecular Liquids
Received date: 12 October 2018
Revised date: 20 November 2018
Accepted date: 21 November 2018

Please cite this article as: K.H. Hosseinzadeh, M. Alizadeh, D.D. Ganji , Solidification
process of hybrid nano-enhanced phase change material in a LHTESS with tree-like
branching fin in the presence of thermal radiation. Molliq (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.molliq.2018.11.109

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Solidification process of Hybrid nano-enhanced Phase Change Material in a

LHTESS with tree-like branching fin in the presence of thermal radiation

Kh. Hosseinzadeha*, M. Alizadeha*, D.D. Ganjia*as

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noushirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran
*
Corresponding author, E-mail: ddg_davood@yahoo.com, khashayarh68@stu.nit.ac.ir, m.alizade@stu.nit.ac.ir

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ABSTRACT

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Large amount of energy can be stored using the Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage

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Systems (LHTESS). Present study deals with solidification process of Hybrid nano-
enhanced Phase Change Material (HNEPCM) in a thermal storage system enhanced
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in the presence of tree-like branching fins and thermal radiation effect. In order to
enhance the thermal conductivity of system, TiO2 -Cu nanoparticles are added to
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water which is considered as phase change material. In order to simulate the

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unsteady heat and mass transfer during the solidification process, the Finite Element
Method (FEM) along with adaptive mesh are employed. The effects of nanoparticles
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shape factor, radiation parameter and bifurcation angle of fin on solidification

process are investigated. Applying Response Surface Methodology (RSM), a
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correlation for full solidification time as a function of nanoparticles shape factor,

radiation parameter and bifurcation angle of fins is extracted. Results indicated that
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by enhancing the thermal radiation parameter and fin bifurcation angle, the average
temperature and total energy of the system experience lower values, while the solid
fraction increases.

Keyword: LHTESS; HNEPCM; Tree-like branching fin; Radiation; Solidification

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1. Introduction

Nowadays, the need to an efficient storage system is vital due to existence of a

gap between the energy supply and energy demand. Such system should be
employed to solve the problem. Researchers have been faced with some energy
challenges such as limitation of energy sources and environmental impacts. LHTES

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is an effective way to store the energy such that all of the aforementioned defects

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will be solved. One mechanism to store the energy in LHTES is to add PCM. Many

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applications are involved with PCMs such as cooling of electronic devices [1],
thermal management of power electronics [2], cooling of mobile electronic devices

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[3], cooling by heat pipes [4]. By applying PCMs in LHTES, the thermal energy will
be stored as change in the internal energy of these materials as latent heat.
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As the LHTES along with PCM is able to store large amount of energy per mass
unit within a small temperature range, it has attracted many attentions among the
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researchers. Recently, A. Andreozzi et al. [5] investigated the solar LHTESS along
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with PCM in a Honeycomb System. Simulations were performed in two cases

including direct honeycomb model and porous medium model. For different values
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of channel per unit of length (CPL), it was found that the results are different only
for CPL  4 . Lohrasbi et al. [6] reviewed the charging and discharging process in a
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LHTESS using a novel finned heat pipe with PCM. They showed that the thermal
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penetration depth into the PCM will be increased by choosing the proper
configuration for applied fins. Ghahramani Zarajabad and Ahmadi [7] performed a
numerical investigation on cold TESS with different PCM volumes. Different PCM
thicknesses of 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 cm are simulated in this research. It was shown
that by raising the PCM thickness from 2 cm to 3 cm, the discharging time improved

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considerably. Therefore, PCM with the thickness of 3 cm is the best option for this
study.

Despite the high capacity of PCMs to store the large amount of energy, one
limitation is their poor thermal properties. This limitation can be solved by adding
nanoparticles to PCM. Nanoparticles have the potential of enhancing the thermal

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conductivity of base material. Therefore, numerous researchers have investigated the

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effect of nanoparticles on TESS with PCM. Ghalambaz et al. [8] reported the melting

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process in a square cavity enhanced with hybrid nanoparticles and phase change
material. Chamkha et al. [9] depicted the effect of using single and hybrid

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nanoparticles and also PCM on the melting process inside a cavity equipped with a
hot cylinder. The authors showed that the melting rate reduces with the augmentation
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of the Fourier number. Lohrasbi et al. [10] reported the effect of adding Y-shaped
fins on the solidification process of NEPCM in a LHTESS. NPCM in the TESS has
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been also an interesting subject among many other researchers [11-25].

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A new version of nanofluids which includes combined nanoparticles is known as

hybrid nanofluids. These types of nanofluids are widely used in different
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applications due to their ability to enhance the heat transfer rate. The heat transfer
and squeezing flow of (Fe3O4)-Ag/ethylene glycol-water hybrid nanoparticles in a
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rotating channel was analytically studied by Ghadikolaei et al. [26]. They concluded
that the temperature reduction by using hybrid nanoparticles is more than the case
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of applying simple nanoparticles. Ghadikolaei et al. [27] investigated the influence

of magnetic field along with thermal radiation on the TiO2-Cu/water hybrid
nanofluid over a stretching sheet. Results illustrated that higher values of Nusselt
number and also lower values of skin friction coefficient will be obtained by using
hybrid nanofluid instead of nanofluid. Moreover, many other researches have been
conducted to investigate the effect of hybrid and usual nanofluids [28-30].
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Thermal radiation is one of the important factors in heat transfer, which is related
to the generation, transfer, thermal energy changes between physical systems. Also,
it is involved in many industrial and engineering processes due to its various
applications. Squeezing flow of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) based nanofluids in a
rotating channel was studied by Ghadikolaei et al. [31] considering the effect of
thermal radiation. Sheikholeslami and Ghasemi [32] investigated the effect of

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thermal radiation on solidification process of nanofluid in an enclosure. Results

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showed that enhancing the radiation parameter results in decreasing total energy.

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One heat transfer enhancement method which has a profound effect on
solidification rate is applying the high conductivity fins with special configuration

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such as Y, V, T and tree-like arrays. Calamas and Baker [33] studied the performance
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of tree-like fins by varying its length, bifurcation angle and material. It was found
that increasing the bifurcation angle of fins leads to enhance its effectiveness, while
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the base temperature were found to decrease. A numerical and experimental

investigation was done by Ismail et al. [34] to analyze the influence of enhancing
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the LHTESS with fins in solidification process. It was concluded that increasing the
fin length will increase the solidification rate, while increasing the fin thickness has
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no considerable effect on it. A numerical investigation on melting process in a triplex

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tube heat exchanger was done by Al-Abidi et al. [35]. They observed that applying
internal and external fins to the system will reduce the melting time up to 34.7%.
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The main objective of this research is to investigate the influences of TiO2-Cu

hybrid nanoparticles along with thermal radiation on the solidification process in a
LHTESS enhanced with tree-like branching fins. Using FEM, the unsteady
governing equations of heat and mass transfer are solved numerically. The effects of
different parameters such as: nanoparticles shape factor, thermal radiation parameter
and fin bifurcation angle are investigated in present study.
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2. Problem description

Fig. 1 demonstrates the geometry and boundary conditions of present study. The
working fluid flows in the inner tube and the HNEPCM fills the space between the
inner tube and outer circular storage tank. In order to enhance the thermal penetration
depth, the tree-like branching fins are attached to the outer side of inner tube. Table.

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1 illustrates the geometry parameters of applied fins. The inside wall is kept at

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constant temperature of 240 K and the initial temperature of HNEPCM is equal to

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285 K. The physical properties of use PCM and nanoparticles are summarized in
Table. 2.

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It should be note that the solidification is a time-dependent process, so it should be
simulated unsteadily. In present work, an unsteady simulation with the time-step
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equal to 1 105 ( s) is carried out. Considering two-dimensional unsteady
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solidification process inside the system and also the radiation effect, the governing
equations of heat and mass transfer in the LHTESS are as follows [10]:
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dT dS qr
( C p )h n f  (kh n f T )  Lh n f 
dt dt y
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(1)
4 T 4 4 T 3
qr   e , T 4  4T3T  3T4 , Rd  e 
3 R y 3 R k f
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 T0
 S  (Tm   T ) / T0 Tm  T0  T  Tm  T0
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2

S  1 T  Tm  T0 (2)
S  0 T  Tm  T0


It should be noted that the conductive and convective heat transfer are the
predominant processes in the solidification and melting, respectively [36].
Therefore, the effect of natural convection is neglected in present study. In the

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abovementioned equations,  e and  R are the representative of Stefan-Boltzmann

constant and mean absorption coefficient, respectively. Also, T and S represent the
temperature and solid fraction, respectively. Moreover, thermal radiation heat flux
in the energy equation follows the Rosseland approximation [37]. It should be noted
that in the Eq. 2, Tm and T0 are the melting temperature and melting interval,

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respectively. In this research, these values are equal to 273 K and 10 K. In addition,

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h n f , ( C p )h n f , (  L f )h n f and kh n f of HNEPCM are calculated as follows [27]:

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 s1
hnf   f (1  2 )[(1  1 )  1 ( )]  2  s 2 (3
f

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)
(  C p ) s1
(  C p ) hnf  (  C p ) f (1  2 )[(1  1 )  1 ]  2 (  C p ) s 2
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( C p ) f (4
)
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(5
(  L f )hnf   L f (1  2 )(1  1 )
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)
khnf ks 2  ( sf  1)k f  ( sf  1)2 (k f  ks 2 )
 ,
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kf ks 2  (sf  1)k f  2 (k f  ks 2 ) (6
ks1  ( sf  1)k f  ( sf  1)1 (k f  ks1 ) )
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kbf  k f
ks1  ( sf  1)k f  1 (k f  ks1 )
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In these equations, indexes f , s1 and s2 represent the base fluid, TiO2 solid
nanoparticle and Cu solid nanoparticle, respectively. Also, 1 and 2 stand for
volume fraction of TiO2 and Cu solid nanoparticles. In this study, the value of 1
and 2 is equal to 0.04 . Moreover, the total energy in the solidification process is
defined as:

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 
Etotal   ( C p )hn f T  (1  S )(  L f )hn f dv
(7)

Also, the average temperature during the solidification process is calculated as

follow:

Tave   TdA (8)

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 dA

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3. Numerical method

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The FEM is applied to simulate the unsteady heat and mass transfer during
solidification process. The parameters are calculated on the nodes which are located

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on the corners of cell. The final calculations are solved by the Newton-Raphson
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method. This method solves the system of equations by an implicit backward
difference approach. The solidification process is simulated by utilizing the adaptive
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mesh as shown in Fig. 2. In present work, the numerical method is validated by

comparing the results based on Galerkin FEM with previous experimental study
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published by Ismaeil et al. [34]. It can be observed from Fig. 3 that this comparison
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represents an excellent agreement with the maximum error of 4.9%. Also, it can be
concluded that the assumption of neglecting natural convection in the simulation is
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logical and close to reality.

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4. Results and discussion

This study investigates the numerical simulation of unsteady solidification

process in a LHTESS with tree-like branching fin considering the effects of
HNEPCM and thermal radiation. The unsteady governing equations of heat and
mass transfer during the solidification process are solved by applying the FEM. The
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shape factor of nanoparticles ( sf  3.7,5.7,16.1), the thermal radiation parameter (

Rd  0,0.5,1 ) and the bifurcation angle of fins (   60,75,90 ) are the
parameters which affect the solidification process in this research.

The isotherm and solid fraction contours during the solidification process for
different values of thermal radiation parameter ( Rd  0,0.5,1 ) and fin bifurcation

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angle (  60,75,90 ) are shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6. It can be seen from these

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figures that increasing the radiation parameter and fin bifurcation angle results in

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higher values of solid fraction in same time. In this situation, the solidification
process is completed faster due to an increase in thermal penetration depth. The

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effect of thermal radiation parameter on the solidification rate is more considerable
than fin bifurcation angle. Moreover, as the value of thermal radiation parameter
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increases, the full solidification time reduces considerably. Among these cases,
choosing θ =90 and Rd=1 leads to the fastest solidification process which takes 601
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s to be completed, when the Platelets type of nanoparticles are applied in the process
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( sf  16.1 ).
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Fig. 7(a, b, c) illustrates the effect of nanoparticles shape factor on average

temperature, solid fraction and total energy, respectively. In this study, three types
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of nanoparticles including the Hexahedron, the Platelets and the Lamina with
different shape factors are studied which are listed in Table. 3. As shown in Fig. 7a,
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increasing the shape factor leads to enhance the thermal conductivity of HNEPCM
and as a result, the average temperature of the system decreases during the process.
It can be observed from Fig. 7b, as the average temperature of the system decreases
by augmenting the shape factor, the rate of solidification increases and the solid
fraction moves toward 1. Also, the total energy of the system is a decreasing function
of nanoparticles shape factor as shown in Fig. 7c.
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The effect of thermal radiation parameter on the average temperature, solid

fraction and total energy variations during the solidification process is illustrated in
Fig. 8(a, b and c). It can be seen that augmenting the thermal radiation parameter
causes the average temperature of the system to be reduced. As a result, the solid
fraction increases during the process and the solidification process is completed in
lower times due to enhancing the heat transfer rate. In addition, it can be concluded

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that lower values of total energy are obtained by augmenting the thermal radiation

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parameter.

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Fig. 9(a, b and c) depicts the influence of fin bifurcation angle on the average

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temperature, solid fraction and total energy of the system. In all cases, increasing the
bifurcation angle leads to enhance the occupied surface by the fin and also the
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penetration depth which causes a reduction in average temperature of the system.
Also, it is expected to have higher values of solid fraction during the process due to
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decreasing the average temperature of the system by raising the bifurcation angle.
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Also, it can be found that choosing the fin bifurcation angle equal to 90 is the most
effective case for reducing the full solidification time.
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Fig. 10 shows the response surfaces of full solidification time for nanoparticles
shape factor, radiation parameter and fin bifurcation angle. It can be seen from this
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figure that enhancing the nanoparticles shape factor, radiation parameter and fin
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bifurcation angle will accelerate the solidification process due to enhanced thermal
penetration depth. Applying the RSM, a correlation for full solidification time is
extracted as a function of sf , Rd and  which is presented as below:

Time   844.86 - 1.93( ) - 18.6015( sf ) - 178.074( Rd )  0.01468( )( sf ) -

0.18715( )( Rd ) - 1.24191( sf )( Rd ) - 0.0260( 2 )  0.75( sf )2  89.168( Rd 2 ) (9)

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It can be concluded that by adding the hybrid nanoparticles along with tree-like
branching fin to the base PCM, the penetration depth enhances and as a result, the
solidification process is completed in lower times.

5. Conclusion

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The solidification process of HNEPCM in a LHTESS with tree-like branching fin

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is simulated in present work. The effect of thermal radiation is also investigated on

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solidification process. By applying the FEM, the unsteady governing equations of
heat and mass transfer are solved numerically. The influences of different parameters

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such as: nanoparticles shape factor, radiation parameter and bifurcation angle of fin
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are studied. The main outcomes of the simulation are as follows:

 The solid fraction experiences higher values by increasing the nanoparticles

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shape factor.
 The average temperature and total energy of the system are decreasing
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functions of radiation parameter and fin bifurcation angle, while the solid
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fraction enhances by raising these parameters.

 Applying TiO2 -Cu hybrid nanoparticles causes higher solidification rate due
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to their ability to enhance the thermal conductivity.

 Using tree-like branching fins with higher bifurcation angle leads to accelerate
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the solidification process due to enhanced thermal penetration depth.

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radiation effect on magneto Casson nanofluid flow with Joule heating effect over an

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inclined porous stretching sheet, Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 12 (2018)

176-187.

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Fig. 1. (a) Three-dimensional view of LHTESS with tree-like branching fin; (b) Two-
dimensional geometry and boundary conditions of present study

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Fig. 2. Adaptive mesh refinement procedure when Rd  0.5 and sf  5.7

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Fig. 3. Comparison between present study and experimental work by Ismaeil et al. [24].

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Fig. 5. Temperature (Top) and solid fraction (Bottom) contour plots in   75, sf  5.7
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Fig. 6. Temperature (Top) and solid fraction (Bottom) contour plots in   90, sf  5.7
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Fig. 7. Effects of nanoparticles Shape factor on (a) Solid fraction, (b) Average temperature and
(c) Total energy in LHTESS with tree-like branching fin when Rd  0.5 and   75

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Fig. 8. Effects of radiation parameter on a) Solid fraction, b) Average temperature and c)
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Fig. 9. Effects of fin bifurcation angle on a) Solid fraction, b) Average temperature and c)
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Fig. 10. Response surfaces of full solidification time for different values of Rd ,  and sf
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Table 1. The geometry parameters of tree-like branching fin

Geometry Parameters Values

 30,60, 90

L1 6.25 (mm)

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4.42 (mm)

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L3 3.125 (mm)

L4 2.21 (mm)

w1
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w3 0.25 (mm)
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w4 0.177 (mm)

r1 30 (mm)
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r2 7.5 (mm)
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Table 2. The physical properties of PCM, nanoparticles and fin

Pr operty PCM Cu TiO2 Fin

997 (Liquid phase)

kg
( ) 8960 4250 8933
m3 916 (Solid phase)

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J 4184(Liquid phase)
Cp ( ) 385 686.2 385

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kgK 2030(Solid phase)

0.6(Liquid phase)

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k( ) 400 8.9538 400
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2.22 (Solid phase)
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Lf ( ) 335, 000   
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Table 3. Shape factors of different nanoparticles

Nanoparticles type Shape Shape factor

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Hexahedron 3.7
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Platelets 5.7

Lamina 16.1

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Nomenclature

LHTESS Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage System

PCM Phase Change Material
HNEPCM Hybrid Nano-Enhanced Phase change Material
FEM Finite Element Method
Rd Radiation parameter
Cp Specific heat capacity [J/kgK]

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T Temperature [K]

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t Time [s]

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Lf Latent heat of fusion [J/kg]
qr 2
Rosseland heat flux [w/m ]
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Thermal conductivity [w/mK]
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E Solid fraction
Energy of the system [J]
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Tm
Solid-liquid phase change temperature [K]
T0
Solid-liquid phase change interval [K]
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 2
Thermal diffusivity [m /s]

Density [kg/m3 ]
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 Nanoparticle volume fraction

e Stefan-Boltzmann constant
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R Mean absorption coefficient

Subscripts
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f
Fluid
hnf Hybrid nanofluid
m Melt
s1 First solid nanoparticle
s2
Second solid nanoparticle
 Ambient

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Highlights:

 TiO2–Cu/water hybrid nanofluid solidification is investigated.

 Tree-like branching fins are employed to enhance the thermal penetration
depth.
 The FEM is employed to solve the unsteady governing equations.

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 RSM is used to extract a correlation for full solidification time.

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 Enhancing thermal radiation parameter accelerates the solidification process.

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