Effect of the Fin Density on the Thermal Performance of a Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger Loaded with a Paraffinic PCM

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