%0 Journal Article %A Elbahjaoui, Radouane %A El Qarnia, Hamid %D 2017 %I Begell House %K latent heat storage unit (LHSU), pulsating flow, nanoparticles, phase change material (PCM), nanoparticle-enhanced phase change material (NEPCM), heat transfer fluid (HTF) %N 4 %P 311-334 %R 10.1615/ComputThermalScien.2017019067 %T MELTING OF NANOPARTICLE-ENHANCED PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL IN A SHELL-AND-TUBE LATENT HEAT STORAGE UNIT HEATED BY LAMINAR PULSATING FLUID FLOW %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/648192910890cd0e,1f91a0a21ba4a14c,2fdb077f0ca15d7f.html %V 9 %X The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of the laminar pulsating heat transfer fluid (HTF) flow on the melting of nanoparticle-enhanced phase change material (NEPCM) inside a shell-and-tube latent heat storage unit (LHSU). The shell space is filled with n-octadecane as a base phase change material (PCM) dispersed with copper nanoparticles. A heat transfer fluid (HTF: water) flows in the inner tube and transfers heat to NEPCM. In order to evaluate the effect of the use of both pulsating flow and NEPCM instead of a stationary flow and a base PCM on the storage performance, a mathematical model based on the energy conservation equations has been developed and validated by experimental, numerical, and theoretical results. Numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the effect of the volumetric fraction of nanoparticles, pulsating frequency, Reynolds number, and Stefan number on the thermal behavior and performance of the storage unit. Calculations were performed in the following control parameter ranges: the volumetric fraction of nanoparticles from 0 to 7%, dimensionless pulsating frequency from 0.01 to 3, Reynolds number from 100 to 2000, and Stefan number ranges from 0.155 to 0.402. The results showed that the dispersion of copper nanoparticles in base PCM enhances the thermal performance of the LHSU. For a volumetric fraction of nanoparticles of 7%, a reduction up to 14.4% in the melting time (at dimensionless pulsating frequency of 1, Reynolds number of 500, and Stefan number of 0.155) was achieved. The results also showed that the pulsating frequency affects the heat transfer rate to NEPCM, and the small melting time is obtained for a low pulsating frequency. It was also revealed that high Reynolds and Stefan numbers highly reduce the time required for the complete melting. %8 2017-08-25