Performance Enhancement of Phase Change Thermal Energy Storage Unit Using Fin and Copper Foam

An experimental study has been carried out to evaluate how fin and copper foam enhance the heat transfer performance of phase change thermal energy storage unit. The thickness of fins is 0.8mm, the porosity of the copper foam is 96% and the phase change material (PCM) is 99% pure eicosane. The samples with fin, copper foam and paraffin (FCFP) or with single copper foam and paraffin (CFP) were processed and their response to temperature variations were tested for vertical placement and horizontal placement under different heat flux conditions. The experimental results show that the use of fin and copper foam can make the sample melt much faster than single copper foam and the effective thermal conductivity of the FCFP composite is 10.83 W/(m∙K), which is 2.7 times as that of the CFP composite. In addition, horizontal placement is more contributive to the heat transfer than vertical placement for high thermal conductivity composite.