Numerical simulation of phase change materials behavior in a triple heat exchanger

The numerical modeling of phase change material behavior in a triple heat exchanger is properly studied using COMSOL Multiphysics. The triple heat exchanger has three sides: an interior pipe for cooling and heating with water, an annular space between the second and first interior pipes carrying PCMs (paraffin or lauric acid), and a third side annular space between the outer pipe and the second pipe containing stagnant water. The triple heat exchanger has the following dimensions: 30 cm length and (0.5 in: 2.5 in: 3.5 in) side diameters. To conduct the PCM thermal dynamic, numerous factors such as water flow rates, cooling, heating operation, and PCM types are taken into account. The findings demonstrate that increasing the flow rate will accelerate the present system’s heating and cooling processes while maintaining the poor thermal dynamic intensity (11 LPM has the maximum thermal storage performance while 52 LPM has the minimum). The temperature distribution on the intermediate side of PCM is the most significant, with stagnant water having the lowest temperature values. Lauric acid is more sensitive to temperature variations than paraffin; given the same flow rates, lauric acid acquires and loses heat faster than paraffin. The findings correlate well with the experimental data; the highest error rate is roughly 11% in the paraffin situation and 5% in the lauric acid case.