Role of honeycomb structure in improving the melting process of a phase change material inside a latent heat storage unit

Abstract

In this work, a numerical study is performed to analyze the impact of honeycomb structure on heat transfer within the PCM. The modeling is based on a transient calculation making it possible to analyze the phase change of the paraffin using the commercial software "Fluent" based on the enthalpy-porosity model. The results showed that the impregnation of a metal matrix in a rectangular enclosure helps to decrease the melting time and thus improve the heat transfer within the PCM.