Study on heat storage performance of a novel bifurcated finned shell-tube heat storage tank

Improving the heat storage performance of latent heat storage systems plays a crucial role in the utilization of solar energy. In this paper, a vertical shell-tube heat storage tank equipped with a novel set of bifurcated fins has been introduced, and the effects of bifurcation angle, fin number and fin thickness on heat storage performance have been investigated. The results show that the bifurcated fin configuration outperforms the longitudinal fin configuration. The bifurcation angle is not the larger the better, and the bifurcated fins achieve the optimal spatial layout when θ is 60°. The fin number shows a significant effect on the melting process, and the numerical results reveal that the optimum fin number is 6. Moreover, the fin thickness has a certain effect on the heat storage performance, but the enhancement is very weak. Under optimal fin parameters, compared with the finless configuration and the longitudinal fin configuration, the melting time reduction of the bifurcated fin configuration is 65.1% and 33.3%, respectively, and the increase in the average heat storage rate is 174.1% and 48.8%, respectively. The results can provide a certain reference value for the structural optimization of the vertical latent heat storage system. • Novel bifurcated fins to enhance melting process of phase change material. • The novel bifurcated fin achieves the optimal spatial layout when θ is 60°. • The critical value of the number of novel bifurcated fins is 6. • Reduction in melting time of 33.3% compared with equal-volume longitudinal fins. • Reduction in melting time of 65.1% compared with finless configurations.