Analytical model of a PCM-air heat exchanger

Vadim Dubovsky, Gennady Ziskind

*
, Ruth Letan
Heat Transfer Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 6 December 2010
Accepted 28 June 2011
Available online 4 July 2011
Keywords:
PCM
Storage unit
Tube banks
a b s t r a c t
This paper presents an analysis of a tubular heat exchanger which utilizes the latent heat of a phase-
change material (PCM). In the heat exchanger, the PCM melts inside tubes while air ows across the
tube banks. The sensible heat capacity of the liquid PCM and the tubes material is considered small in
comparison with the latent heat of melting. This assumption allows to derive and solve a system of
partial differential equations which describe heat transfer and melting of the PCM inside the tubes and
heat transfer in the air for the entire system.
An analytical solution is obtained and compared with the results of a numerical solution. Simple
formulas are found for the overall heat exchange parameters, like heat transfer rate, stored energy and
total melting time. In addition, the model predicts the results for separate tubes depending on the tube
location in the system. The effect of the model assumptions on the results and applicability of the
analytical solution to the real heat exchangers are demonstrated.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Thermal energy storage units utilizing latent heat of phase-
change materials (PCM) attract signicant attention because of
their apparent advantages over the sensible heat storage. The
available literature includes studies of various storage unit cong-
urations. It appears that among them, shell-and-tube systems are
the most popular ones. According to Agyenim et al. [1], this
geometry accounts for more than 70% of articles in the literature.
This is probably related to the fact that tubular heat exchangers are
widely used in various engineering applications, with the data on
their design and performance readily available.
When a tubular unit is used for heat storage, a PCM may be
stored in the tubes whereas heat transfer uid (HTF) passes
through the shell, or vice versa. Accordingly, the analyses presented
in the literature reect the specic congurations used. For
instance, Zhang and Faghri [2] analyze a unit with forced laminar
convection of water as the heat-transfer uid inside the tube,
whereas the PCM melts in a hollow cylinder around it. A similar
conguration was investigated by Lacroix [3]. Trp [4] and Trp et al.
[5] investigate the effect of various operating conditions and
geometric parameters on a PCM-water shell-and-tube unit. In
a number of works, heat transfer enhancement by axial or radial
ns is reported (Zhang and Faghri [6], Ismail et al. [7], Erek et al. [8],
Ermis et al. [9], Agyenim et al. [10]). Multi-tube heat transfer arrays
are considered by Agyenim et al. [11]. More complex congurations
may include a triplex concentric tube where the PCM lls the
middle channel, a hot heat transfer uid ows in the outer channel,
and a cold heat transfer uid ows in the inner channel (Jian-you
[12]), and a double pipe with the PCM embedded in a graphite
matrix (Medrano et al. [13]).
The literature reports also congurations with a PCM placed
inside the tube and a longitudinal uid ow outside it (Bansal and
Buddhi [14], Esen et al. [15]). Effect of various PCMs, tube radii, total
PCM volume, heat transfer uid mass ow rate and inlet temper-
ature of uid are analyzed. The units designed specically for solar
energy applications have been analyzed by Esen and Ayhan [16]
and Esen [17]. Recent work in the eld includes analyses of
a latent-heat storage system for direct steam generation in solar
thermal power plants [18] and of a PCM canister suggested for
a heat pipe solar receiver [19].
It should be noted that in the literature, the analysis of a single-
tube unit is usually done. For a longitudinal ow either inside or
outside the tube, this approach can be quite reliable, since a prac-
tically important multi-tube unit may be considered as comprised
of several single-tube units which do not affect one another while
contributing to the total performance. However, this approach
cannot be used for a cross-ow multi-tube unit, because there the
performance of each row will depend on the effects of the
preceding row. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the heat storage
unit as a whole, either theoretically or experimentally. Time-
dependent performance of such heat exchangers might be
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 972 8 6477089.
E-mail address: gziskind@bgu.ac.il (G. Ziskind).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Applied Thermal Engineering
j ournal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ apt hermeng
1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2011.06.031
Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3453e3462
computed using elaborate programs which include a detailed
analysis of owand heat transfer with phase change. This approach
is extremely time-consuming even for the most basic geometries
(e.g. Assis et al. [20], Shmueli et al. [21]) and thus does not allow
consideration of a number of variants needed for optimization.
Another approach is based on step-by-step integration of a simpli-
ed system of tube-to-tube equations in time. Such a system of
equations describes the processes of ow, heat transfer and phase
change in a one-dimensional approximation (Letan and Ziskind
[22]). Direct analytical methods are limited to thermal balance
studies without computing processes in time (Farid and Kanzawa
[23]).
It may be thus concluded that certain assumptions are
unavoidable in order to facilitate an analytical description of a PCM-
based storage unit. For instance, if the range of operating temper-
atures is narrow, the heat stored by sensible heating of the system
elements is small as compared to that stored via the phase change.
However far-fetching some assumptions may appear at the rst
glance, the importance of an analytical solution in providing an
insight in a complex problem often surmounts the neglected
details. On the other hand, it is essential that such a solution will
retain the essential features of the actual systemwhich is modeled,
accounting for such parameters as tube thickness and actual
thermal resistance.
In the present paper, this approach is adopted for an analysis of
a storage unit designed as a cross-ow tubular PCM-air heat
exchanger, in which the tubes contain the phase-change material
whereas the air is fan-driven across the tube banks. Both integral
and local process parameters, including heat transfer rate, air
temperature, and PCM melt fraction are obtained as explicit func-
tions of time by an analytical solution of one-dimensional systemof
equations. Also, the analytical solution is accompanied by numer-
ical modeling, which demonstrates a clear ability of the former to
provide a reliable prediction of the unit performance.
2. Problem statement
In contrast to ordinary heat exchangers operating in a steady-
state mode, heat exchangers with PCM operate during a limited
period of time in a transient mode. Correspondingly, all the
parameters (heat transfer rate, air temperature, melt fraction) are
variable in time t. This refers both to local values of these param-
eters and to overall heat exchanger characteristics like air
temperature at the outlet and average melt fraction.
2.1. Basic denitions and assumptions
In the heat exchanger considered herein, tubes with PCM are
arranged in-line with an outside cross ow of hot air (Fig. 1).
This is a one-dimensional problem, i.e. a row of tubes perpen-
dicular to airow has a sufcient number of tubes and the length
of tubes is sufcient to neglect the edge effects. Airow with
a known and constant inlet temperature T
in
and ow rate _ m is
supplied to the heat exchanger. Air properties are assumed to be
constant. The expected air velocities are relatively low, a few
meters per second, yielding the Mach number of the order of
O(10
2
). Thus, the compressibility effects are negligible. We note
that viscous heating (dissipation) is also negligible under these
conditions.
A constant heat transfer coefcient from air to tube, h
air
, is
considered as a known value, calculated by using well-known heat-
transfer correlations for the ows across tube banks (e.g. Grimson
correlation in Holman [24]). By these correlations, the Nusselt
number depends on the stream- and span-wise tube spacing,
normalized with the outer tube diameter. Thus, the choice of the
spacing is done by the designer similarly to the commonly used
cross-ow heat exchangers. A theoretical analysis of the problem
may be found in a recent work by Khan et al. [25].
The total mass of the PCM in the exchanger is M, thus its total
melting heat is Q
0
ML, where L is the specic latent heat. The total
heat-exchange surface, A
0
, is calculated based on the inner diam-
eter of the tubes, D. A row perpendicular to airow is numbered n,
as shown in Fig. 1, where n 1, 2, .N, and N is the total number of
rows in the unit. Each row has the same number of tubes. The heat
exchange is described by a system of equations with two inde-
pendent variables, n and t, where n is a discrete spatial dimen-
sionless variable, and t is time. The following dependent variables
are used in the model to describe the processes in an n-th row: heat
transfer rate q(n,t), local air temperature T(n,t), and PCM melt
fraction f
m
(n,t).
In order to facilitate an analytical solution, several assumptions
are made. The PCM placed inside the tubes is initially in the solid
state at the melting temperature T
m
. The properties of the PCM are
constant. We assume that the specic heat of the liquid phase of
PCM, as well as heat capacity of tubes material, can be neglected in
comparison with latent heat of melting, L. This means that when
a tube (row) has nished its melting, there will be no temperature
gradient and no heat ux between the PCM and the air. It may be
noted that within the temperature range explored in the present
study, the sensible heat capacities of the tube material and liquid
PCM do not exceed 5% and 10%, respectively, of the latent heat
capacity of the PCM used. Actually, by neglecting the sensible heat
capacity, the model under-predicts the real cooling capacity of the
unit, thus presenting a conservative estimate of its performance.
Nevertheless, in the calculation of real heat exchangers presented
in Section 5, the heat capacity of the tube material is approximately
accounted for.
Assuming concentric melting of the PCM, the diameter of the
solid fraction in tube (row) number n is denoted d
m
(n,t). Accord-
ingly, for constant PCM properties the melt fraction, f
m
(n,t), is
expressed as
f
m
1 d
m
=D
2
(1)
The thermal resistance of the tube wall, r
t
, is dened based on the
inner diameter of the tube, e.g.
r
t

D
2k
t
logD
out
=D (2)
where k
t
is the thermal conductivity of tube material. Thus, the tube
wall thickness and conductivity are included in the model. The
units of r
t
are [m
2
K/W], presenting the ratio of temperature
difference to heat ux as is commonly done in heat transfer studies.
Accordingly, the effective heat transfer coefcient between air and
the inner surface of the tube, also dened based on its inner
diameter D, is constant and given by Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of air-PCM heat exchanger.
V. Dubovsky et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3453e3462 3454
h
tair

1
D
D
out
h
air
r
t
(3)
The variable thermal resistance of the annular PCM liquid layer,
r
l
(n,t), is taken into account by
r
l

D
2k
logD=d
m
; d
m
s0 (4)
where k is the PCM thermal conductivity, i.e. convection is
neglected. Eqs. (1) and (4) yield a relation between this resistance
and the melt fraction:
r
l

D
4k
log1 f
m
(5)
2.2. Governing equations
The energy balance, used in the present analysis, assumes that
a certain amount of heat supplied to the material, which is at its
melting temperature, causes melting of the corresponding amount
of the material depending on its latent heat. This amount of heat
depends on the temperature difference, ow conditions, heat-
transfer-uid properties and heat-transfer parameters involved.
Unlike solidication, which may depend on material-type-related
sub-cooling, melting kinetics is thus governed by heat transfer, as
presented in phase-change studies fromthe most basic modeling of
the Stefan problem (Gupta [26]), to complex geometries and full
numerical solutions (Dincer and Rosen [27])
The energy equation used in the present study follows the
common approach to forced heat convection in ducts and in ows
across tube banks, which assumes the validity of pseudo steady-
state analysis andalsoneglects diffusioninthestreamwisedirection:
_
_ mc
p
vT
vn
_
air
qn; t (6)
Thus, Eq. (6) accounts for the time dependence of the air
temperature by including the variable heat input, q(n,t). The
change in the air enthalpy is accounted for by the convection term
which is a part of the material derivative. A discussion on transient
problems in forced convection, which addresses situations in
which the partial time-derivative of the temperature may have
a considerable impact on the results, can be found in the works of
Cotton and Jackson [28] and Padet [29], and in the extensive
references included therein.
The instantaneous local PCM melt fraction, f
m
(n,t), and heat
transfer rate, q(n,t), are related via the latent heat capacity per row,
Q
n

Q
0
N

ML
N
(7)
as
vf
m
vt

q
Q
n
(8)
Since it is assumed that the heat is stored by PCM melting only, the
instantaneous balance for an n-th tube is given by:
q A
n
h
eff
T
av
T
m
(9)
where h
eff
is an effective heat transfer coefcient from air to PCM
solid fraction, which combines both the constant resistance which
follows fromEqs. (2) and (3) and variable resistance dened by Eqs.
(4) and (5):
h
eff

1
1=h
tair
r
l

1
1=h
tair
D=4klog1 f
m

(10)
The space-average local air temperature for a tube number n,
denoted T
av
, obviously lies between the temperature before and
after the tube. Theoretically, it should correspond to a log-mean
temperature difference (LMTD) between the tube surface and
owing air. However, in the present approximate model such level
of accuracy would have been rather articial. In order to facilitate
the solution, T
av
may be formally dened using a factor 03 1,
where 3 0 corresponds to the air temperature before the tube and
3 1 corresponds to the temperature after the tube:
T
av
T
q3
_ mc
p
(11)
For instance, 3 0.5 would correspond to T
av
dened as the arith-
metic mean between the incoming and outgoing air, frequently
used in approximate engineering calculations. It is important to
note that Eq. (11) addressed a certain tube (row) rather than the
entire unit. Thus, as far as T
av
e T
m
is much greater than the air
temperature rise per row, which is certainly true for a multi-row
unit envisioned, the actual value of 3 does not have much impact on
the overall results. Indeed, in the long run, i.e. for the entire melting
process, the effect of this parameter becomes negligible, see Eq.
(47) below, yielding the difference of about 5% between the
extreme cases, 3 1 and 3 0.
Using Eqs. (10) and (11), Eq. (9) may be rewritten as:
q
A
n
1=h
tair
3=h
f
D=4klog1 f
m

T T
m
(12)
where h
f
_ mc
p
=A
n
is constant.
Eqs. (6), (8) and (12) form a system of two partial differential
equations and one algebraic equation with three dependent vari-
ables T(n,t), f
m
(n,t) and q(n,t), subject to the following conditions:
f
m
n; t 0 0
Tn 1; t T
in
(13)
The second condition of Eq. (13) means that it is necessary to solve
the equations for the rst tube, in order to obtain a basis for the
solution for the entire heat exchanger.
3. Analytical solution for the rst tube
For the rst tube, n 1. Assuming T T
in
, we substitute Eq. (12)
into Eq. (8) and obtain:
Q
1
A
1
T
in
T
m

_
1
h
tair

3
h
f

D
4k
log1 f
m1

_
df
m1
dt (14)
where f
m1
(t) f
m
(n 1, t). The solution of Eq. (14), with the initial
condition for f
m
(n,t) given by Eq. (13), is as follows:
f
m1
p1 f
m1
log1 f
m1
s (15)
where p is a constant reecting the thermal resistance:
p h
0
D
4k
(16)
with
h
0

1
1=h
tair
3=h
f
D=4k
(17)
whereas s is the dimensionless time, s t/t
1
, with t
1
denoting the
time of complete melting:
t
1

Q
1
A
1
T
in
T
m
h
0
(18)
V. Dubovsky et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3453e3462 3455
The initial and nal values of f
m1
are:
f
m1
t 0 0; f
m1
t t
1
1 (19)
Also,
df
m1
dt
t 0
1
t
1
1 p
(20)
A solution of Eq. (15) for the different values of p is shown in
Fig. 2.
Using Eqs. (8) and (14), the normalized instantaneous heat
transfer rate may be dened as:
q
1
q
1av

1
1 p1 log1 f
m1

(21)
where the time-average heat transfer rate is
q
1av

Q
1
t
1
(22)
The normalized instantaneous heat transfer rate, q
1
/q
1av
, is plotted
in Fig. 3 for different values of p. One can see how the parameter p,
which is the internal-to-total thermal resistance ratio, affects the
results. It should be noted that the extreme values of p 0 and p 1
are not practical and are used to demonstrate the bounds only.
4. Analytical solution for the entire heat exchanger
4.1. Explicit form of solution for the rst tube
In order to proceed with the analytical solution, we need an
explicit expression for the melt fraction f
m1
. However, the implicit
algebraic relation for f
m1
, Eq. (15), cannot be resolved with respect
to f
m1
.
In order to overcome this difculty, we seek an approximate
explicit function of the following kind:
f
m1
t
1 expbs
1 expb
(23)
where b is some constant. Note that the suggested formsatises the
conditions of Eq. (19) for any value of b. On the other hand,
a method of optimal choice of constant b does not affect the
following calculations. In our solution, it is approximated using Eq.
(20), as follows:
1 expb
b
1 p (24)
A comparison of the solution of Eq. (15) with its approximation
by Eq. (23) for p <1 is shown in Fig. 4. Generally, the approximation
error is less than 1e4%. For p / 1, e.g. p 0.8, the deviation
becomes considerable, as expected. Obviously, this approximation
is not valid for p /1.
According to Eq. (8) and using Eq. (24), the heat transfer rate is
now given by:
q
1
q
max

h
0
h
f
b
1 expb
expbs (25)
where
Fig. 2. Melting of PCM in the rst tube for different values of p.
Fig. 3. Heat transfer rate for the rst tube.
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
t/t
1
f
m
1
p=0
p=0
p=0.2
p=0.2
p=0.4
p=0.4
p=0.6
p=0.6
p=0.8
p=0.8
Fig. 4. Melting of PCM in the rst tube. Exact solution of Eq. (15) e solid lines,
approximation by Eq. (23) e dashed lines.
V. Dubovsky et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3453e3462 3456
q
max
_ mc
p
T
in
T
m

Q
1
t
1
h
f
h
0
(26)
is the maximum air heat transfer rate.
The decrease in the air temperature in a dimensionless form is
the same as the right-hand side of Eq. (25):
DT
1
T
in
T
m

h
0
h
f
b
1 expb
expbs (27)
where DT
1
T
1
T
2
is the difference of air temperatures before and
after the rst tube.
4.2. Solution for the entire heat exchanger
First, variables q and T in Eqs. (6), (8) and (12) are eliminated,
yielding an equation for the variable f
m
(n,t):

1
h
f
vf
m
vt

D
4k
1
1 f
m
vf
m
vn
vf
m
vt

_
1
h
tair

3
h
f

D
4k
log1 f
m

_
v
2
f
m
vnvt
28
We note that this relation does not include the specic latent heat,
L, explicitly, meaning that it is true for any value of L. The term on
the left-hand side accounts for the airow via its coefcient,
h
f
_ mc
p
=A
n
.
Now, we introduce a new independent variable y:
y 4s n (29)
The function 4(s) should be dened later. The relation of Eq. (29)
yields:
vf
m
vt

df
m
dy
d4
dt
1
t
1
;
vf
m
vn

df
m
dy
;
v
2
f
m
vnvt

d
2
f
m
dy
2
d4
dt
1
t
1
(30)
Substituting Eq. (30) into Eq. (28), we obtain:
1
h
f
df
m
dy

D
4k
1
1f
m
_
df
m
dy
_
2

_
1
h
tair

3
h
f

D
4k
log1f
m

_
d
2
f
m
dy
2
(31)
or
df
m
dy
h
f
d
dy
__
1
h
tair

3
h
f

D
4k
log1 f
m

_
df
m
dy
_
(32)
It is of interest that the function f is canceled, and the partial
differential Eq. (28) converts into the ordinary differential Eq. (32).
After integration of Eq. (32), we obtain:
f
m
h
f
_
1
h
tair

3
h
f

D
4k
log1 f
m

_
df
m
dy
C (33)
Constant value C in Eq. (33) will be dened further.
Now we analyze Eq. (33) for the rst tube (n 1), rewriting the
condition of Eq. (30) in the following way:
df
m1
dy
t
1
df
m1
dt
_
d4
ds
(34)
Substituting this relation into Eq. (33), we obtain:
f
m1
C
h
f
d4
ds

_
1
h
tair

3
h
f

D
4k
log1 f
m1

_
df
m1
dt
t
1
(35)
From Eq. (14) the following relation is known:
_
1
h
tair

3
h
f

D
4k
log1 f
m1

_
df
m1
dt
t
1

1
h
0
(36)
Finally:
d4
ds

h
f
h
0
f
m1
C
(37)
At the initial moment of time, t 0, melt fraction f
m
0 for any n.
Thus, the function y is independent of n for t 0. This is possible, if
both the function 4(0) and its derivative have innite values. Thus,
in Eq. (37) the constant C is equal to 0.
The function f
m1
(t) is already known. Substitution of Eq. (23)
into Eq. (37) and integration yield:
4s
_

_
1
x
f
_
s
1
b
log1 expbs
_
C
1
; s 1
1
x
f
_
1
1
b
log1 expb
_

h
f
h
0
s 1 C
1
; s ! 1
(38)
where
x
f

h
0
h
f
1 expb
(39)
The constant value C
1
in Eq. (38) will be dened further.
We now proceed to an analysis of the function f
m1
(y). First, we
obtain its derivative based on Eq. (22):
df
m1
dt

b
t
1
_
1
1 expb
f
m1
_
(40)
Further we substitute Eqs. (40) and (37) into Eq. (34):
df
m1
f
m1
f1 f
m1
1 expbg
bx
f
dy (41)
Integration of Eq. (41) yields:
f
m1
y
1
1 expb C
2
exp
_
bx
f
y
_; s 1 (42)
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
tau=t/t
1
f
m
1
,

q
1
/
q
1
a
v
f
m1
exact
f
m1
explicit
q
1
/q
1av
exact
q
1
/q
1av
explicit
Fig. 5. Melting of PCM in the rst tube: comparison of melt fraction and heat transfer
rate by exact solution of Eq. (15) and their approximation by Eq. (23).
V. Dubovsky et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3453e3462 3457
According to the conditions of Eqs. (19) and (20), we obtain C
1
1;
C
2
1 e exp(eb).
Finally, Eqs. (29) and (38) yield:
yn; s
_

_
1
x
f
_
s
1
b
log1expbs
_
n1; s 1
1
x
f
_
1
1
b
log1expb
_

h
f
h
0
s1 n1; s !1
(43)
The tube number, n, is present in Eq. (43) only, whereas the
differential equation (33) for the relationship f
m
(y) is independent
of n. Thus, Eq. (42) is correct for any n while s s
pc
(n), where s
pc
(n)
is the non-dimensional time of complete phase change for the nth
tube. Eq. (42) yields:
f
m
yn;s
1
1expb
_
1exp
_
bx
f
y
__; ss
pc
n (44)
According to Eq. (43), we obtain melt fraction of Eq. (44) as follows:
The time of complete phase change for the n-th tube s
pc
(n) obvi-
ously yields:
s
pc
n 1
h
0
h
f
n 1 (46)
Correspondingly, the time of phase change for the whole heat
exchanger yields:
s
0
1
h
0
h
f
N 1 (47)
Now we calculate the heat absorbed by the entire heat exchanger:
Qs
Q
0

1
N

N
n1
f
m
n; s (48)
We note that Eq. (47) is derived using the condition Q(s
0
) Q
0
.
Independent variable n is a discrete variable. Now we assume
that it is a continuous variable in order to replace summation by
integration. Under this assumption, an integration of Eq. (48) over
the continuous variable n yields:
f
m
n; s
_

_
f
m1
s
1 expbs
_
exp
_
bx
f
n 1
_
1
_; s 1
1
1 expb
_
exp
_
bx
f
_
n 1
h
f
h
0
s 1
__
1
_; 1 s s
pc
n
(45)
Fig. 6. Melt fraction for the rst, last and every tenth tube: numerical (solid lines) and
analytical (dashed lines) solutions.
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
t, s

Q
/
Q
0
,

q
0
Q/Q
0
q
0
Fig. 7. Dimensionless absorbed energy and heat transfer rate of the entire heat
exchanger: numerical (solid lines) and analytical (dashed lines) solutions.
Fig. 8. Comparison of numerical results (solid lines) with analytical results (dashed
lines) over a wide range of total number of tubes.
V. Dubovsky et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3453e3462 3458
where
q 1 expb
_
exp
_
bx
f
_
N s 1h
f
=h
0
__
1
_
(50)
Finally, the heat transfer rate in a dimensionless form is dened as:
5. Comparison of analytical and numerical solutions
As a typical example, we consider the following heat exchanger
(Letan and Ziskind [22]):
The tube length is 0.81 m, reecting an experimental heat
exchanger built in our laboratory in the past. The overall number of
tubes should then be 32/pD/0.81y1260, and the number of tubes
in one row 1260/90 14. We assume that the effective air
temperature at a tube is the temperature behind the tube, 3 1, as
it is usually assumed for sets consisting of many rows (with the
number N large enough), see, for example, Bejan [30].
An analysis based on Sections 2 and 3 yields the following
values:
h
tair
103:8W=m
2
K; h
f
784W=m
2
K; h
0
42:7W=m
2
K; t
1
754 s; p 0:534:
Melt fraction and dimensionless heat transfer rate for the rst tube
in our example are shown in Fig. 5. A comparison of the present
analytical solution with the numerical results of Letan and Ziskind
[22] is shown in Figs. 6,7. The melt fraction is given for the rst, last
and every tenth tube in Fig. 6.
The general parameters of heat exchanger are shown in Fig. 7.
The values of heat transfer rate and total absorbed energy are
presented in the dimensionless form. It seems unnecessary to
remind that the absorbed energy corresponds to the melt fraction
of PCM averaged over the heat exchanger. Comparison of analytical
and numerical results for different numbers of tubes is shown in
Fig. 8.
The transition from discrete to continuous variable n is obvi-
ously valid for high values of the total number of tubes N.
Nevertheless, Fig. 8 shows that for small values of N, relations
(49)e(51) remain valid. Here we examine an extreme case of one
tube only, where the inadmissibility of the transition from discrete
to continuous variable seems obvious. Still, Fig. 9 demonstrates that
the results of integration instead of summation are quite acceptable
even in this case.
A comparison of analytical and numerical results for different
values of inlet air temperature is shown in Fig. 10. A comparison of
analytical and numerical results for different values of airow rate
(air velocities) is shown in Fig. 11. As the velocity changes, air heat
transfer coefcient changes are properly taken into account using
Grimsons correlation [24]. A good agreement between the present
model and the numerical calculations is found in all cases
considered.
Qs
Q
0

_
1
1 expb

1
bN
h
f
h
0
log
_
1 expbs
_
exp
_
bx
f
N
_
1
__
; s 1
1
1 expb

expb
1 expb
h
f
h
0
s 1
N

1
bN
h
f
h
0
logq; 1 s s
0
(49)
q
0
s
1
q
max
t
1
dQ
ds

_

_
expbs
_
exp
_
bx
f
N
_
1
_
1 expbs
_
exp
_
bx
f
N
_
1
_; s 1
exp
_
bx
f
_
N s 1h
f
=h
0
__
1
exp
_
bx
f
_
N s 1h
f
=h
0
__
expb 1
; 1 s s
0
(51)
M 60 kg; T
m
23
+
C; L 206000 J=kg; k 0:2 W=m K; _ m 0:277 kg=sy 3:5 m=s;
T
in
35
+
C; h
air
86 W=m
2
K; D 0:01 m; D
out
0:012 m; A
0
32 m
2
; N 90:
Fig. 9. Heat transfer rate for heat exchanger with only one tube. Comparison of exact
solution Eq. (21), approximated solution for the rst tube of Eq. (25), and result of
integration with respect to the continuous version of variable n (Eq. (51) for N 1).
V. Dubovsky et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3453e3462 3459
5.1. Heat transfer in real heat exchangers
In reality, sensible heat capacity of the system should be taken
into account. For the purpose of demonstration, this capacity may
be included in the analytical solution very roughly through an
effective latent heat capacity, dened as
L
eff
L
_
c
p;PCM
c
p;tube
M
tube
M
_
T
in
T
m
(52)
where M
tube
and c
p,tube
are the mass and specic sensible heat of
the tubes, c
p,PCM
is the specic sensible heat of the liquid PCM.
Actually, Eq. (52) assumes that the tube walls and entire liquid PCM
are heated up to the temperature of the incoming air, thus repre-
senting an energy balance for innite time. For this reason, it could
not be used to predict the actual melting process features, and in
particular the melt fraction. Thus, a comparison with a numerical
solution of real heat exchangers is given in Fig. 12 in terms of the
heat transfer rate only. A fairly good agreement is observed
between the analytical and numerical predictions. We note that the
numerical solution takes into account sensible heat capacities of
PCM liquid phase and tube material, whereas the assumptions of
the annular melting process inside the tubes and constant mate-
rials properties hold there, too. The details of the numerical
approach appear in the Appendix.
6. Summary and conclusions
An analysis of a heat exchanger which utilizes the latent heat of
a phase-change material (PCM) has been presented. In the
exchanger, the PCM melts inside tubes while air ows across the
tube banks. Considering the sensible heat capacity of the liquid
PCM and the tubes as small in comparison with the latent heat of
melting, a system of partial differential equations, which describes
heat transfer and melting of the PCM inside the tubes and heat
transfer in the air, has been derived and solved.
An analytical solution of the system of equations has been
compared with the results of a numerical solution, demonstrating
a very good agreement. Simple formulas are obtained for the
overall heat exchange parameters, like heat transfer rate, stored
energy and total melting time. In addition, the model predicts the
results for separate tubes depending on the tube location in the
system. The effect of the model assumptions on the results and
applicability of the analytical solution to the real heat exchangers
have been demonstrated.
Appendix. Numerical models
1. If the sensible heat capacities of the liquid PCM and of the
tubes material are assumed to be negligible in comparisonwith the
latent heat capacity, the system of equations is as follows:
df
m
dt

q
Q
n
(A-1)
T
n1
T
n

q
_ mc
p
(A-2)
d
m
D

1 f
m
_
(A-3)
r
l

D
2k
logD=d
m
(A-4)
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
t, s

q
0
N=90
N=30
Fig. 12. Comparison of numerical (solid lines) and analytical (dashed lines) results for
real heat exchangers with N 90 and N 30.
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
t, s

q
0
T
in
=35
o
C
T
in
=47
o
C
T
in
=71
o
C
Fig. 10. Comparison of numerical (solid lines) and analytical (dashed lines) results over
a wide range of inlet air temperatures.
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
t, s

q
0
v=v
0
v=2v
0
v=4v
0
v=0.5v
0
Fig. 11. Comparison of numerical (solid lines) and analytical (dashed lines) results over
a wide range of airow rates.
V. Dubovsky et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3453e3462 3460
r
t

D
2k
t
logD
out
=D ; h
1
D
D
out
h
air
r
t
(A-5)
q A
n
T T
m
1=h r
l
(A-6)
This system was solved tube-to-tube starting from air inlet to air
outlet. Integration in time was carried out with the time step of
0.2 s.
2. For the real heat exchangers, the sensible heat capacities of
the liquid PCM and tubes material are included, and the system of
equations is as follows:
1
N
_
f
m
Mc
p;PCM
M
tube
c
p;tube
_
dT
p
dt
q
a
q
p
(A-7)
df
m
dt

q
p
Q
n
(A-8)
T
n1
T
n

q
a
_ mc
p
(A-9)
d
m
D

1 f
m
_
(A-10)
R
1

D
2k
log2D=D d
m
(A-11)
R
2

d
m
2k
logD d
m
=2d
m
d (A-12)
r
t

D
2k
t
logD
out
=D ; h
1
D
D
out
h
air
r
t
(A-13)
q
a
A
n
T T
p
1
_
h R
1
(A-14)
q
p
A
n
d
m
D
T
p
T
m
R
2
; q
p
q
a
(A-15)
where T
p
is the instantaneous mean temperature of the PCM uid
fraction, q
a
is the heat transfer rate from air to tubes, and q
p
is the
phase-change share of the heat transfer rate. The small value, d, has
no effect on the results. It was taken as d 10
6
in our calculations.
This system was solved tube-to-tube starting from air inlet to air
outlet. Integration in time was carried out with the time step of
0.2 s.
Nomenclature
A heat transfer area related to inner diameter (m
2
)
c
p
air specic heat (J/kg K)
d
m
diameter of PCM solid fraction (m)
D tube inner diameter (m)
D
out
tube outer diameter (m)
f
m
PCM melt fraction
h heat transfer coefcient (W/m
2
K)
k PCM thermal conductivity (W/m K)
k
t
thermal conductivity of tube material (W/m K)
L PCM latent heat (J/kg)
_ m air ow rate (kg/s)
M total mass of PCM (kg)
n current number of tube row
N overall number of tube rows
p internal-to-total thermal resistance ratio
q heat transfer rate (W)
q
0
dimensionless heat transfer rate
Q heat (J)
r thermal resistance (m
2
K/W)
t time (s)
T temperature (K)
Greek letters
r PCM density (kg/m
3
)
s dimensionless time
Indices
air air
av average
eff effective
in inlet
l liquid
m melting
n for one tube
out outlet
t tube
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