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This study is aimed to investigate the melting of phase change material (PCM) in a horizontal double pipe heat exchanger. The area between the pipes is filled with RT50 as PCM and water is used as a heat transfer fluid (HTF) which flows through inner pipe. The downward movement of inner pipe, inlet temperature and mass flow rate of HTF are considered and compared with the base system. The results show that inner pipe downward movement increases the convection-dominant zone which reduces melting time considerably (up to 64%). Results also indicate that by increasing the HTF inlet temperature thermal potential of the system increases which accelerates the melting process. However increasing the mass flow rate of HTF does not have significant role in melting rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, utilization of micro/mini channel heat sinks (MCHS) has become a popular solution for cooling of electronic systems and maintaining their operating temperature in a desired range. Increasing the contact surface area between fluid and solid zones by geometrical modifications is a promising solution that significantly affects thermal performance and heat transfer in these systems. In this paper, considering thermohydraulic performance, the effect of creating grooves on the middle-placed barriers of a minichannel heat sink is investigated to access a criterion for favorable temperature performance. Evaluating different geometrical parameters of barriers and grooves including cross section, depth and position of horizontal groove as well as vertical groove distance, simultaneous employment of optimal horizontal and vertical groove in the channel at different Reynolds numbers is studied. Outputs including channel base temperature, friction factor ratio and total thermal resistance are studied to evaluate the performance of the proposed minichannel. Results indicate that vortex formation adjacent to solid walls considerably enhances the heat transfer and variation of each geometrical parameters offers a performance enhancement. Moreover, the best thermal performance is obtained by simultaneous employment of the horizontal rectangular groove (x = 0.45 mm, y = 0.2 mm and h g = 0.6 mm) and the vertical groove (d g = 0.4 mm). In the optimal case, the channel base temperature and the total thermal resistance reduces by 11.88 K and 27%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, melting of a phase change material (PCM) in a multi-tube heat exchanger (MTHX) is investigated. Water, as the heat transfer fluid (HTF), flows through the inner tube/tubes and the outer one while RT35 as the PCM fills the middle. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of number of inner tubes as a geometrical parameter during charging process. Also consequences of increasing operational parameters including the HTF mass flow rate and inlet temperature are studied. In order to understand the effects of the proposed configurations, a comparison between double pipe and simple MTHX is carried out. Results show that as the inlet temperature increases melting process accelerates and complete melting time reduces, whereas, similar mass flow rate increase doesn't reduce the melting time to such an extent. By increasing the number of inner tubes from 1 to 4 in the shell side of the MTHX, melt region enlarges and its including vortices strengthens which leads to a dominated convective heat transfer and thus a higher melting rate. This increase in number of tubes leads to 29% reduction in melting time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hotspot heat transfer using a microchannel pin-fin hybrid heat sink is investigated numerically. • Pin-fin shape, pin-fin angle, wall wave amplitude, Reynolds number and hotspot heat flux are investigated. • Rectangular pin-fin with rounded edges have better thermal performance than NACA 0024 airfoil. • Increasing the NACA 0024 airfoil angle increases the heat transfer and consequently leads to decrease in hotspot temperature. • By increasing the airfoil pin-fin angle, MATD improves in the base of heat sink and hotspot. In the present study, numerical investigation of hotspot heat transfer in a microchannel pin-fin hybrid heat sink is accomplished. The proposed heat sink consists of 20 microchannels at background zone and 143 pin-fins at hotspot zone. Therefore, the effect of parameters including geometrical properties (pin-fin shape, pin-fin angle and microchannel wall wave amplitude), Reynolds number and hotspot heat flux on different decisive parameters of heat sinks are investigated. Parameters such as average pressure drop, pumping power, mean absolute temperature difference (MATD) at background zone, MATD at hotspot zone and thermal resistance are considered as performance parameters. The results show that rectangular pin-fin with rounded edges have better thermal performance than NACA airfoil. Besides, increasing the NACA airfoil angle increases the heat transfer and consequently leads to decrease in hotspot temperature. Also, numerical results show that increasing the wall wave amplitude increases the heat transfer rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]