Experimental and numerical assessments of thermal transport in fins and metal foam infused latent heat thermal energy storage systems: A comparative evaluation

•Comparative evaluation of pure PCM, fins infused PCM, and metal foam infused PCM is carried out.•Benchmarks for liquid–solid interface visualization for all three configurations are established.•Fins infused PCM demonstrates higher melting rate than the metal foam infused PCM.•Metal foam infused PCM shows the better solidification rate than the fins infused PCM.•Metal foam infused PCM performs better in terms of the total cycle time. The thermal performance enhancers typically address constrained thermal conductivity of the phase change materials in the latent heat thermal energy storage systems. The commonly employed thermal efficiency enhancer is the fins whilst a new technique is the metal foam infusion. The thermal transport augmentation of both the enhancers is often highlighted emphasizing the geometrical and operational characteristics, and compared with the pure phase change material (PCM). It is, however, rare to find a comparative evaluation of the classical fins and metal foam during the phase change. Consequently, the aim of present study is to juxtapose the thermal performance of the fins and the metal foam infused latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems under identical compactness factor. A well-characterized experimental test rig is developed to validate a developed numerical model based on the local thermal non-equilibrium coupled enthalpy porosity approach. The results show that the incorporation of the fins enhances the melting and solidification thermal transports by 50% and 5.56% respectively in comparison to the pure PCM. Similarly, the metal foam infusion shows 16.67% and 33.33% respective thermal transport enhancements under the same mass of the PCM. The fins infused PCM accelerates the melting rate by 66.67% than the metal foam infused PCM. On the other hand, the metal foam infused PCM exhibits 29.41% higher solidification rate than the fins infused PCM. In terms of the total cycle time, the metal foam as a thermal performance enhancer stands out better than the fins by 15%. The outcomes of the present study can be employed for a selection of the thermal performance enhancer for the efficient LHTES system.