STUDY ON THE HEAT TRANSFER OF LATENT HEAT THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE. (3RD REPORT, NATURAL CONVECTION EFFECTS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE APPARATUS WITH DENSE PLATE-FINS).

Abstract

Heat transfer characteristics of thermal energy storage apparatus having parallel plate fins were investigated through experiments and numerical analysis. Then, optimum aspect ratio H/D, which gives the maximum nondimensional average heat flux q, was found to exist for a given combination of three parameters: Grashof number Gr, Prandtl number Pr and the nondimensional fin pitch D/w. The optimum values of q were summarized, for various combinations of Gr, Pr and D/w.