Influence of the fin pitch on the thermal performance of a latent thermal energy storage based on a finned-tube heat exchanger

In this paper, we analyse the thermal performance of a prototype of Latent Thermal Energy Storage (LTES) system, consisting of a finned-tube heat exchanger immersed in the paraffinic Phase Change Material (PCM) RT50. With the aim of showing the influence of the fin density on the system thermal performance, experimental tests were conducted by varying the fin pitch while keeping the Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) operating conditions constant (i.e., mass flow rate and inlet temperature). The experimental findings point out that increasing the fin density significantly reduces the charging and discharging process durations up to approximately 5-10 times, improving consequently the average heat transfer rate between the HTF and PCM.