Study on enhancing heat transfer performance of spiral groove tube in phase change heat storage for solar energy

Abstract Based on the energy storage problem for solar energy utilization and the advantages of spiral groove tube heat exchanger, spiral groove tubes were used in the solar energy phase change heat storage. The thermal storage process of heat reservoir was simulated numerically. Firstly, the simulation method and the reliability of the used model are verified experimentally with smooth tube. Using spiral groove tube as water flow pipe and phase change material as heat storage medium, The three-dimensional model of heat storage was built by Gambit software and the grids were divided by ICEM. The heat storage process in the spiral groove tube and smooth tube heat storage were numerically simulated and the heat transfer enhancing effect was investigated. The influence of structural parameters such as groove pitch and groove depth on the heat storage process is simulated numerically and the influence rules are analyzed. The results show that the convective heat transfer intensity and heat transfer capability are enhanced when the smooth tubes are substituted by spiral groove tubes in the phase change heat storage and the heat storage time becomes shorter. In the range of this paper, the optimal structural parameters of spiral groove tube is groove pitch p=7mm and groove depth e=0.4mm.