Solar Energy 78 (2005) 341–349

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Thermal performance of PCM thermal storage unit

for a roof integrated solar heating system
W. Saman *, F. Bruno, E. Halawa
Sustainable Energy Centre, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes SA 5095, Adelaide, Australia

Received 12 September 2003; received in revised form 19 August 2004; accepted 25 August 2004
Available online 14 October 2004

Communicated by: Associate Editor Claudio Estrada-Gasca

Abstract

The thermal performance of a phase change thermal storage unit is analysed and discussed. The storage unit is a
component of a roof integrated solar heating system being developed for space heating of a home. The unit consists
of several layers of phase change material (PCM) slabs with a melting temperature of 29
C. Warm air delivered by
a roof integrated collector is passed through the spaces between the PCM layers to charge the storage unit. The stored
heat is utilised to heat ambient air before being admitted to a living space. The study is based on both experimental
results and a theoretical two dimensional mathematical model of the PCM employed to analyse the transient thermal
behaviour of the storage unit during the charge and discharge periods. The analysis takes into account the effects of
sensible heat which exists when the initial temperature of the PCM is well below or above the melting point during melt-
ing or freezing. The significance of natural convection occurring inside the PCM on the heat transfer rate during melting
which was previously suspected as the cause of faster melting process in one of the experiments is discussed. The results
are compared with a previous analysis based on a one dimensional model which neglected the effect of sensible heat. A
comparison with experimental results for a specific geometry is also made.
 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Phase change materials; Solar space heating; Thermal storage unit; Roof integrated heating systems

1. Introduction main goal is producing a technically reliable system with

The work is currently underway at the Sustainable
Energy Centre, University of South Australia, to design
a roof integrated solar air heater for space heating. The
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +618 8302 3008; fax: +618
8302 3380.
E-mail address: wasim.saman@unisa.edu.au (W. Saman).
economic attractiveness. This will be realised through
two important strategies: (1) utilising existing roof con-
struction as the thermal collector thereby minimising
the capital cost, and (2) introducing a latent thermal
storage unit which will store excess solar energy for
use when there is no solar radiation and thereby mini-
mising the auxiliary energy requirement.
Belusko et al. (2001) have developed mathematical
models for the roof integrated solar heating system
(RISHS) and a full scale prototype system has recently

0038-092X/$ - see front matter  2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2004.08.017
342 W. Saman et al. / Solar Energy 78 (2005) 341–349
Nomenclature
A surface area of a boundary node, m2
Af passage cross-sectional area, m2
c specific heat, J/kg
C
f liquid fraction of a node
h volumetric sensible enthalpy of a node, J/m3
H total volumetric enthalpy, J/m3
hc local heat transfer coefficient, W/m2
C
hs sensible enthalpy of a surface node, J/m3
k thermal conductivity, W/m
C
m mass flow rate, kg/m3
q heat transfer rate, W
T temperature,
C
t time, s
U velocity, m/s
Greek symbols
k latent heat of fusion, J/kg
a thermal diffusivity, m2/s
Aux
Heat Fan
Storage
Unit
Insulation
Fig. 1. Schematic of the roof integrated solar heating system.
been installed in a house in Adelaide, Australia. The
schematic of the RISHS is shown in Fig. 1 (Belusko et
al., 2001). As shown, the system utilises the existing roof
as a solar collector/absorber and incorporates a PCM
thermal storage unit consisting of calcium chloride hexa-
hydrate to store heat during the day and releases it to
heat the living space during the night or when there is
no sunshine. The inclusion of an energy storage unit in
the system aims to ensure the maximum utilisation of so-
lar energy absorbed by the system. By this, it maximises
the solar contribution to serve the heating load and min-
imises the need for auxiliary energy. The installed
RISHS is currently under monitoring and evaluation.
In general, thermal energy storage offers the follow-
ing advantages (Dincer and Rosen, 2001 and Dincer
and Dost, 1997): reduced energy costs, reduced energy
consumption, improved indoor air quality, increased
flexibility of operation, reduced initial and maintenance
costs, reduced equipment size, increased efficiency and
effectiveness of equipment utilization, conservation of
q density, kg/m3
Subscripts
cond conduction
E east node
l liquid phase
m melting
N north node
P current (centre) node
s solid phase
S south node
W west node
w wall
Superscript
o previous (old) value
fossil fuels, and reduced pollutant emissions (e.g. CO2
and CFCs). The proposed system aims to have all these
advantages.
A number of thermal energy storage systems using
PCMs as the storage media have been designed and/or
installed. Farid and Husian (1990) designed and tested
an electrical storage heating system which utilised off-
peak electrical energy. They showed that a PCM based
storage unit has much less weight and could replace
the conventional storage using bricks. They suggested
further studies regarding the economic feasibility of
the system for domestic purposes. Farid and Kong
(2001) designed and tested an underfloor heating system
using encapsulated PCM. The PCM (calcium chloride
hexahydrate, CaCl2 Æ 6H2O) with a melting point of
28
C was placed in the concrete floor during the con-
struction. The system was able to provide uniform heat-
ing throughout the day and kept the floor surface near
the desired temperature of 24
C. Arkar and Medved
(2002) designed and tested a latent heat storage system
used to provide ventilation of a building. The spherical
encapsulated polyethylene spheres were placed in a duct
of a building ventilation system and acted as porous
absorbing and storing media. The heat absorbed was
used to preheat ambient air flowing into the living space
of a building.
The ‘‘solar wall’’ is another application of PCM for
thermal storage. In this case the solar radiation that
reaches the wall is absorbed by the PCM buried in
the wall. Stritih and Novak (2002) designed an ‘‘experi-
mental wall’’ which contained black paraffin wax as the
PCM heat storage agent. The stored heat was used for
 W. Saman et al. / Solar Energy 78 (2005) 341–349
heating and ventilation of a house. The results of this
work, according to the authors, were ‘‘very promising’’.
Recently Vakilaltojjar (2000) and Vakilaltojjar and
Saman (2001) developed a mathematical model and de-
signed and tested a thermal storage unit using PCM for
a space heating and cooling system integrated with a re-
verse cycle air conditioner. The model used by Vakilal-
tojjar was an extension of the one developed by
Morrison and Abdel-Khalik (1978) for an air system.
In his work, Vakilaltojjar treated the thermal energy
storage system model as a forced convection problem with
variable wall temperature. In the model the sensible heat
was ignored and heat transfer was assumed to occur at a
constant melting point temperature (Vakilaltojjar, 2000
and Vakilaltojjar and Saman, 2001). As a consequence
of this simplification, in the simulation the initial tem-
perature of PCM was set equal to the melting
temperature.
In the model, the air inlet temperature was 40
C and
the melting temperature of the PCM was 29
C. It is ex-
pected that the largest portion of sensible heat transfer
occur on the initial instant after complete melting of
PCM; that is when the driving force (i.e. temperature
difference) is the highest.
As a rough estimate, when the PCM used in the mod-
el reaches the equilibrium temperature or steady-state
conditions, given the temperature difference between
the melting point and the air flowing outside the PCM
containers, the maximum sensible heat convected by
the flowing air to the PCM that can be stored is
23.43 kJ/kg (or 11% of the total) for CaCl2 Æ 6H2O and
40.48 kJ/kg kg (or 14.9% of the total) for KF Æ 4H2O.
These figures may justify Vakilaltojjars claim for low
differences between the air temperatures and melting/
freezing temperatures.
The inclusion of the sensible heat term(s) in a model
that describes the heat transfer between PCM and air,
however, is useful when this term cannot be neglected.
For example, Bruno and Saman (2001) have shown that
for PCM fibreboards used as heat storage, the sensible
heat is significant in the overall heat transfer; and the
model involving only the latent heat is not valid. The ef-
fect of the sensible heat is also important in relation to
thermal comfort consideration. Since the unit being ana-
lysed is used for delivering air to a living space to main-
tain the required level of thermal comfort, any factors
that affect the thermal comfort need to be considered
carefully.
In the present work, the sensible heat term is included
in the analysis while maintaining the effects of varying
wall temperature on the air temperature. The model con-
siders both the melting and freezing processes and the ef-
fects of operating temperature level on the melting/
freezing time.
The model is used to analyse the thermal perform-
ance of the PCM thermal storage unit (TSU). To check
343
the validity of the model two sets of experimental results
from similar and different PCM geometry are compared
with the model predictions.
2. Mathematical model
The schematic of the thermal storage unit under anal-
ysis is shown in Fig. 2. It consists of several layers of
PCM slabs placed parallel to each other. Air flows
through the passages between the PCM slabs.
The most realistic model of the TSU under the study
is a two dimensional model where a temperature gradi-
ent exists and therefore heat transfer occurs in both ver-
tical and horizontal directions. In the vertical direction,
heat transfer occurs due to the temperature difference
between the air flow along the surface of the PCM and
the layer of the PCM. In the horizontal direction, heat
transfer occurs due to the variation in the temperature
of the PCM along the horizontal plane. This scheme is
shown in Fig. 3. In this scheme heat transfer between
the PCM and the fluid occurs along the left, right, lower
and upper surfaces of the PCM.
The mathematical model employed in the current
work is based on the enthalpy formulation where the
dependent variable is enthalpy. For a phase change
process involving either melting or freezing, energy con-
servation can be expressed in terms of total volumetric
enthalpy and temperature as follows (Voller, 1990):
oH
þ rðuH Þ ¼ rðkðrT ÞÞ ð1Þ
ot
where H = total volumetric enthalpy, J/m3; t = time, s;
u = velocity; k = thermal conductivity, W/m
C;
T = temperature,
C.
L
Air Flow
PCM slab
Fig. 2. Schematic of the thermal storage unit (TSU).
y
W
x
L
Fig. 3. Two dimensional model of the TSU.
344 W. Saman et al. / Solar Energy 78 (2005) 341–349

In general, the thermophysical properties of materials oh ofl

¼ r  ðarhÞ  qk ð9Þ
undergoing phase change can be assumed constant. In ot ot
such a case, Eq. (1) can be simplified as Referring to Fig. 4, discretisation of Eq. (9) yields the
oH following equations for internal nodes (Voller, 1990
¼ rðkðrT ÞÞ ð2Þ and Costa et al., 1998):
ot
aE hE þ aW hW þ aP hP þ aN hN þ aS hS
In the above equations, the total volumetric enthalpy
H is the sum of the sensible and latent heats of the PCM ¼ hoP þ q1 kðfPo  fP Þ ð10aÞ
and is related to the temperature of the PCM as follows:
where
Z T 
aE ¼ aW ¼ aN ¼ aS ¼ aR
H ðT Þ ¼ qc dT þ qfl ðkÞ ð3Þ ð10bÞ
Tm aP ¼ 1  aE  aW  aN  aS
The first term on the right side of Eq. (3) accounts for where hP = volumetric sensible enthalpy of the current
the sensible heat while the second term accounts for the node, P; hE, hW, hN and hS = sensible enthalpies of adja-
latent heat of the PCM. In the above formulation, the cent (East, West, North and South) nodes; ql = density
latent heat of the PCM is related to the liquid fraction of liquid PCM, kg/m3; hoP = volumetric sensible enthalpy
of the PCM, fl. To be able to calculate the latent heat, of the current node from previous time step; fPo = liquid
the liquid fraction fl needs to be defined. For the case fraction of the current node from previous time step;
of isothermal phase change (at T = Tm) the liquid frac- fP = liquid fraction of the current node; a = thermal dif-
tion fl is calculated as follows: fusivity of PCM, m2/s.
 The geometry of the current TSU has a high ratio of
1 if T > T m length to the thickness of the slabs. Direct application of
fl ¼ ð4Þ
0 if T < T m the discretized Eq. (10) in the simulation will lead to
unnecessarily long computing time. Therefore, in the
where Tm = melting temperature,
C.
present work a quantity / is introduced and defined as
Eq. (3) can also be written as
/ = dx/dy, where dx is the length of a node in horizontal
H ¼ h þ qfl k ð5Þ (x) direction and dy is the thickness of a node in vertical
where k = latent heat of fusion, J/kg. (y) direction. Inclusion of this quantity during the dis-
The first term on the right-hand side of Eq. (3) de- cretization of Eq. (9) results in the following modified
fines the sensible heat, h: equations of internal nodes coefficients:
9
Z T aE ¼ aW ¼ aR/2 >
=
hðT Þ ¼ qc dT ð6Þ aN ¼ aS ¼ aR ð10cÞ
Tm
2
>
;
aP ¼ 1 þ 2aRð/ þ 1Þ
Following Eqs. (3) and (6) the enthalpy of the PCM is
Z T In Eqs. (10b) and (10c), R is defined as
H¼ qs cs dT ; T < T m ðsolidÞ ð7aÞ
Tm R ¼ Dt=ðDyÞ2 ð10dÞ
When the ratio / = 1, the coefficients of internal
H ¼ ql fl k; T ¼ T m ðmeltingÞ ð7bÞ
nodes, Eq. (10c), will be identical to Eq. (10b).
Z T
Initial condition
H¼ ql cl dT þ ql k; T > T m ðliquidÞ ð7cÞ
Tm For the melting process, the PCM is initially solid
and its temperature is assumed at a certain value below
where qs = density of solid PCM, kg/m3; cs = specific
the melting point. For winter operation, the initial tem-
heat of liquid PCM, J/kg C; ql = density of liquid
perature of the PCM, Tinit, is assumed to be 20
C. For
PCM, kg/m3; cl = specific heat of liquid PCM, J/kg C.
freezing, the PCM is initially liquid and its temperature
Solving Eqs. (7) for the PCM temperature, we get:
H
T ¼ Tm þ H < 0 ðsolidÞ ð8aÞ
q s cs N
P
T ¼ Tm 0 6 H 6 q1 k ðinterfaceÞ ð8bÞ W E

H  q1 k S
T ¼ Tm þ H > q1 k ðliquidÞ ð8cÞ
ql cl
Fig. 4. Two dimensional domain of the PCM internal nodes
Substituting Eq. (5) into (2) we obtain: notation.
 W. Saman et al. / Solar Energy 78 (2005) 341–349 345

is assumed at a certain value above the melting point. used to determine the sensible enthalpy, hs, at the slab
The value of this temperature depends on the final con- surface as follows:
dition of melting during the charge period. These two hs ¼ qs cs ðT PCM  T Melt Þ T PCM < T Melt
situations can be used to calculate the initial sensible
enthalpy of the PCM, hinit, as follows: hs ¼ 0 T PCM ¼ T Melt ð16Þ
 hs ¼ ql cl ðT PCM  T Melt Þ T PCM > T Melt
qs cs ðT m  T init Þ
hinit ¼ ð11Þ
ql cl ðT init  T m Þ

3. Results and discussion

Boundary conditions
The PCMs storage being modelled is subjected to the
following convection boundary conditions. Heat con-
vected by the air to the PCM equals the heat conducted
into the PCM. The heat conducted into the PCM is used
to raise its internal energy and at the melting point this
energy is used for changing its phase. A thermal circuit
for the heat exchange between the air, the wall and the
PCM is given in Fig. 5.
Referring to Figs. 2 and 3 the heat transfer rate from
the air from one node to the next in the +x direction is
given by
Qair ¼ mair cP DT air
The air mass flow rate mair can be calculated from
mair ¼ qair V air Af
where Vair = air velocity inside the passage, m/s;
Af = passage cross-sectional area, m2.
Heat convected by the air, Qconv, to the PCM con-
tainer wall (see Fig. 5) is given by
Qcov ¼ hc AðT air  T wall Þ
where hc = local heat transfer coefficient, W/m
C;
A = surface area of a boundary node, m2; Tair = air tem-
perature,
C; Twall = wall temperature,
C.
Heat conducted to the PCM surface node is given by
ðT wall  T PCM Þ
Qcond ¼ k w A
Dy wall
Referring to Fig. 3, for a differential length Dx along
the air flow direction, the constant wall temperature
assumption is valid. A number of correlations for the
Nusselt number, Nu, are available (Kays and Perkins,
1985) depending on the prevailing flow regime.
3.1. TSU Specification
The TSU under the numerical investigation consists
of 45 flat PCM slabs arranged one on top of each other.
This arrangement is contained in a rectangular duct
through which air flows to release or remove heat from
the PCM. The PCM (CaCl2 Æ 6H2O) has the following
thermophysical properties: melting temperature = 29
C,
densities: qsolid = 1710 kg/m3, qliquid = 1500 kg/m3, ther-
mal diffusivities: asolid = 2.9684 · 107 m2/s, aliq-
7 2
uid = 1.5464 · 10 m /s, thermal conductivities:
ksolid = 1.09 W/m K, kliquid = 0.54 W/m K. Air flows
ð12Þ through the air gap between the slabs. The total mass
of PCM is 600 kg and each slab has dimensions
1 m · 0.89 m · 0.01 m. Each slab is contained in a plastic
ð13Þ
container. For melting the PCM initial temperature was
20
C whilst for freezing the PCM initial temperature
was 40
C.
3.2. Simulation results of the TSU
ð14Þ
3.2.1. Effect of inlet temperature
2
Fig. 6 shows how inlet temperature affects the heat
transfer rate and the melting time at a given air flow
rate. The higher the inlet temperature the shorter the
melting time due to increased heat transfer rate. Further
reduction in inlet air temperature results in a very long
ð15Þ melting time which is not viable practically and
economically.
7.5
Flow rate = 400 l/s
Heat Transfer Rate, kW

Eqs. (12)–(15) are used to calculate the fluid, wall and 40°C
5.0 37.5°C
PCM surface node temperatures at any distance from
35°C
the entrance. The surface node temperature, TPCM, is

2.5

T air q T PCM
T Wall
0.0
∆ywall 0 120 240 360 480 600 720 840
1 Time, minutes
hc A k wA
Fig. 6. Effect of the inlet temperature on the heat transfer rate
Fig. 5. Thermal circuit of the air-wall-PCM heat transfer. and melting time (flat slabs).
346 W. Saman et al. / Solar Energy 78 (2005) 341–349

3.2.2. Effect of air flow rate 40

Fig. 7 shows the simulation results of the heat trans- Flow rate = 400 l/s

Temperature, °C
fer rates and the melting time during a melting process 35
for three different air flow rates. As seen, a higher flow 15°C 17.5°C
30 20°
rate increases heat transfer rate and shortens the melting
time. The effect of the air flow rate is similar to that of 25
inlet temperature.
As the charge period is limited by the period of solar 20
energy availability, this parameter is an important factor 0 120 240 360 480 600 720 840
Time, minutes
in determining the effectiveness of the TSU. Individual
or combined effect of the inlet temperature and air flow Fig. 9. Effect of air inlet temperature on the air outlet
rate may be the only practical factors that can control temperature and freezing time (flat slabs).
the range of the melting time.

3.2.3. Outlet air temperature profile approaches that of the PCM initial temperature and
For heating, the useful commodity of a TSU is the drops linearly and sharply during the period of the first
outlet air which should be warm enough to provide ther- hour. This is desirable as it delivers warming effect dur-
mal comfort when it is delivered to a living space. Figs. 8 ing the initial period of the system operation.
and 9 show the outlet air temperature resulting from a When the PCM surface temperature reaches the melt-
discharge (freezing) process. Air entering the TSU at a ing point, the outlet temperature drops gradually be-
constant temperature of 20
C is heated as it passes the cause some of the heat is used to freeze the PCM. The
air passages in the TSU having initial temperature of outlet temperature suitable for heating must be limited
40
C. by that necessary for achieving thermal comfort.
Initially, due to the high temperature difference be- The effect of the air flow rate on the outlet air temper-
tween the air and the PCM, the outlet air temperature ature is also worth noting. As the flow rate increases the
outlet air temperature curve shifts downwards which re-
sults in a lower air temperature supply to the living space
10.0 (Fig. 8). Conversely, increasing the air inlet temperature
Inlet temp. = 40°C results in higher air temperature of the air leaving the
Heat Transfer Rate, kW

600 l/s TSU (Fig. 9).

7.5
400 l/s
300 l/s 3.3. Comparison with experimental results
5.0

The results predicted by the model have been com-

2.5 pared with two sets of experimental data. The first set
consists of experimental data for PCM in flat containers
0.0 while the second set came from the experiments with
0 120 240 360 480 600 720 840 PCM encapsulated with conical capsules. The errors
Time, minutes
encountered in the experiments came from the measure-
Fig. 7. Effect of air flow rate on the heat transfer rate and ments of air flow rates and the temperatures. The air
melting time (flat slabs). flow rate was measured using a nozzle flowmeter having
an accuracy of ±2%. The temperatures were measured
with type T thermocouples calibrated against a resist-
40
ance temperature detector (RTD) with an accuracy of
±0.5
C. Based on these values, the temperature meas-
Inlet Temp. = 20°C urements reported in the paper are within ±0.5
C whilst
Temperature, °C

35
the heat transfer rates reported are within ±0.35 kW.
600 l/s 400 l/s 300 l/s
30
3.3.1. Flat slabs
25 Fig. 10 shows the inlet temperature of the air flowing
into the TSU, the actual outlet temperature from the
20 previous experiment (Vakilaltojjar, 2000) and the outlet
0 120 240 360 480 600 720 840 temperatures predicted by Vakilaltojjars model and the
Time, minutes
present model. The PCM and the thermophysical prop-
Fig. 8. Effect of air flow rate on the air outlet temperature and erties are the same as in the simulation (Section 3.2). The
freezing time (flat slabs). data used in both the models and the experiment were as
 W. Saman et al. / Solar Energy 78 (2005) 341–349 347

40 3.0
Inlet

Heat Transfer Rate, kW

2.5 Experiment
Present model
Temperature, °C

35 2.0
Vakilaltojjar's
1.5

Present model 1.0

30
Experiment 0.5 Vakilaltojjar's

0.0
25 0 120 240 360 480 600 720 840
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25
Time, minutes
Time, hrs
Fig. 11. Comparison of the experimental heat transfer rates
Fig. 10. Inlet and outlet air temperature profiles of the TSU with those predicted by the models (conical capsules, melting).
from the two models and the experiment (flat slabs, melting).

follows. Weight of the PCM slabs = 6.05 kg consisting of 40

28 slabs, air flow rate = 96 l/s, slab thickness = 5 mm, Inlet
width = 200 mm, length = 126 mm and air gap = 5 mm.

Temperature, °C
35
The PCM initial temperature was 25
C.
The figure shows a close agreement between the pre- 30
sent model, Vakilaltojjars model and the experimental Vakilaltojjar's
results. Similar results were found with the experiments 25
Present model
involving freezing. Due to the small mass of PCM used Experiment
in the experiments, the sensible heat effect only appears
20
during the very short time at the beginning of the melt- 0 120 240 360 480 600 720
ing process. Time. minutes

3.3.2. Conical capsules
The model also has been used to predict the heat
transfer rate and the outlet temperature profile of a
TSU containing PCM encapsulated in conical capsules.
Due to the difference in the geometry, while keeping
other parameters constant, the equivalent thickness of
a slab and the air gap need to be estimated. Estimation
was based on the actual heat transfer surface that results
from the arrangement of the conical capsule in the TSU.
The data of the experiment are as follows (Bruno and
Saman, 2002): TSU dimensions = 1.3 m · 0.9 m · 0.6 m,
PCM weight = 253.5 kg, container: conical capsule, air
flow rate = 264 l/s with varying air inlet temperature.
Fig. 11 shows the heat transfer rates predicted by
both the models and the actual experimental results.
As can be seen the prediction of the present model
underestimates the heat transfer rates during half of
the time, however it predicts accurately the melting time
and the total heat stored during the melting.
Fig. 12 shows the inlet temperature and the outlet
temperatures from the experiment and from both
models.
As can be seen, in the initial period of melting where
the sensible heat is predominant, the actual outlet tem-
perature and that predicted by the present model rise
sharply by some degrees above the initial temperature
(about 22
C) to a value above the melting point
(28
C). In the later period, where the whole surface of
Fig. 12. Inlet and outlet air temperature from the experiment
and those predicted by the models (conical capsules, melting).
the PCM is at the melting point, the outlet temperature
increases gradually and finally approaches the inlet tem-
perature at the end of melting.
Since the heat transfer rate and air temperature are
coupled, underestimate of heat transfer rate at the begin-
ning of melting (Fig. 10) is reflected in the rather high
outlet air temperature at the same period. Since Vakilal-
tojjars model ignored the sensible heat, it predicts high-
er outlet temperature at the initial period of melting.
Finally, Figs. 13 and 14 show the heat transfer rate
and air outlet temperature from the actual experimental
results and the models prediction for freezing. As
shown, the present model predicts accurately both the
heat transfer rate and the air outlet temperature.
3.4. Natural convection
Previously it was suspected that natural convection,
occurring inside the PCM during the melting, speeds
up the melting process (Bruno and Saman, 2002). In
the present model, natural convection effect has not been
included; yet it is able to predict quite accurately the
melting time and the heat transfer rate during the melt-
ing. This suggests that for the geometry being consid-
ered, the effect of natural convection is rather
348 W. Saman et al. / Solar Energy 78 (2005) 341–349

3.0 (2) A higher inlet air temperature increases the heat

Heat Transfre Rate, kW Vakilaltojjar's transfer rates and shortens the melting time. Conversely,
2.5
Present model
during freezing, a lower inlet air temperature increases
2.0
the heat transfer rates and shortens the freezing time.
1.5 (3) Likewise, a higher air flow rate increases the heat
1.0 transfer rate and shortens the melting time but increases
Experiment the outlet air temperature. For freezing, a higher air flow
0.5
rate increases the heat transfer rate and shortens the
0.0
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 freezing time but reduces the outlet air temperature.
Time, minutes (4) The model employed in this study has been vali-
dated using existing experimental data and the compar-
Fig. 13. Comparison of the experimental heat transfer rates
ison is quite satisfactory.
with those predicted by the models (conical capsules, freezing).

References
35
Present model
Arkar, C., Medved, S., 2002. Enhanced solar assisted building
Temperature, °C

30
25
20
15
0 60
Fig. 14. Outlet air temperature from the experiment and those
predicted by the models (conical capsules, freezing).
insignificant. This is understandable as the natural con-
vection depends on the value of the Rayleigh number
which is small for the geometry considered in this study.
As observed by Laouadi and Lacroix (1999) for the TSU
geometry similar to that in the present study, the effect
of natural convection is significant only when the
PCM slabs are in the vertical position and heated from
the side.
4. Conclusions
Analysis of the thermal performance of a phase
change storage unit has been carried out. It demon-
strates the need to include the effect of sensible heat in
analysing this particular application. The following con-
clusions can be drawn from the analysis:
(1) The effect of sensible heat is perceived in the initial
periods of both melting and freezing. The effect are re-
flected in sharp increase in the outlet air temperature
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