Effect of air layer on PCMs melting process inside a spherical container: A numerical investigation

Efficient latent heat storage technology is getting significant interest from the researchers, scientist, and engineers who are involved in solar heating and cooling, waste heat utilization, and building energy management applications. The latter materials are employed most frequently in this connection owing to their pronounced energy storage capacity and moderate cost. The present work involves a numerical analysis for the assessment of heat transfer through paraffin wax RT42 when it is fully converted from solid to liquid phase in a spherical container with and without air layer. The interaction of the py-porosity combination was evaluated numerically with the use of ANSYS/FLUENT 16 program. As can be seen from the results, the increase in the complete melting time with the presence of the 1 mm thick air layer was 33.33% and that the presence of a 2mm air layer raised the complete melting time by 66. It was 66.67% higher than the control without the air layer. In this research, it is clear that air layers play a major role in the delay of the melting of paraffin wax. • Latent heat storage technology is critical in solar heating, cooling, waste heat recovery, and building energy management due to its high energy storage capacity and cost-effectiveness. • Paraffin wax RT42 retains a lot of latent heat in small areas as a result of its excellent thermophysical properties. • The study used ANSYS/FLUENT to conduct a numerical analysis of heat transmission in paraffin wax RT42 within a spherical container, both with and without an air layer. • A 1 mm air layer increases the complete melting time of paraffin wax by 33.33%, while a 2 mm air layer increases it by 66.67%. • The presence of air layers significantly delays the melting process of paraffin wax, demonstrating the impact of thermal resistance on the efficiency of thermal storage units.