Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Increasing Number and Arrangement of Inner Tube in a Triplex Tube Heat Exchanger on Solidification Behavior of Phase Change Material using Al2O3 nanoparticles

In this paper a two dimensional numerical study of solidification of phase change material (PCM) in a triplex tube heat exchanger is studied. Water is used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) which flows through the inner and outer tubes while the shell side is filled with RT82 as the PCM. The purpose of this numerical study is to increase the internal tube size vertically and horizontally with the constant volume of phase change material as a geometric parameter and also the effect of temperature as a flow parameter. Also, in this study, the effect of nanoparticles on the solidification process of phase change material has been investigated. The results show that the solidification time has decreased with the addition of nanoparticles. Also, the results indicate that with an increase in the internal tube, a significant decrease in solidification time is observed. Vertical geometric arrangement with two and three internal tubes compared to the flow arrangement with an internal tube of solidification time has decreased by 15% and 30%, respectively.