Experimental Study on Enhancing PCM Melting Using Finned Heat Pipe in a Storage Unit

Latent heat storage is one of the future concepts for saving energy, utilizing phase change materials (PCMs). The principal limitation of PCM is its low rate of thermal conductivity, which leads to a longer time and a greater surface area for the transfer of thermal energy during charging and discharging. To solve this problem, an experimental setup was constructed in this paper for the purpose of investigating the behavior of paraffin wax during the charging process in a thermal energy tank. The system was evaluated under varying power inputs of 180 W, 250 W, and 300 W applied to the evaporator zone of the heat pipe to simulate the effect of a heat source. The experimental results show that complete melting of PCM was achieved within 4 hours, with the surface temperature ranging between <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$80{}^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$</tex> and <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$90{}^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$</tex>.