Numerical study of latent heat storage unit thermal performance enhancement using natural inspired fins

Thermal energy storage plays an important role to control the intermittent nature of renewable energy. This paper presents a numerical study to the enhancement of the melting and solidification rates of phase change material (PCM) mounted in the annulus of a double pipe latent heat storage unit (LHSU). The enhancement is achieved by using the natural inspired fins (branch shape fins). One and two bifurcations branch fins were designed and their effect on the thermal performance of the LHSU was studied and compared with the longitudinal-finned. The result shows that the melting and solidification processes of the branch shape fins contributed to the improvement by about 44% and 46% respectively.