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Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33

Experimental investigation of melting behavior of PCM by using

coil heat source inside cylindrical container
M. Tayssir ∗ , S.M. Eldemerdash, R.Y. Sakr, A.R. Elshamy, O.E. Abdellatif
Faculty of Engineering at Shoubra, Benha University, Cairo, Egypt
Received 4 July 2016; received in revised form 27 September 2016; accepted 11 October 2016
Available online 16 November 2016

Abstract
The use of a latent heat storage system by using phase change materials (PCMs) is an effective method of storing thermal energy.
This paper is carried out to study the melting behavior of PCM experimentally. The PCM used in the present study is paraffin wax
and the heat transfer fluid, HTF is water. A test rig has been designed and constructed to store thermal energy in PCM contained
in a vertical cylinder of 300 mm inner diameter and 600 mm height. A copper helical coil of 100 mm outer diameter and 300 mm
height is fitted concentrically inside the cylinder and HTF is passed upward through the coil.
Experiments were performed for different inlet temperatures of HTF 70 ◦ C, 80 ◦ C and 90 ◦ C and for different volume flow rates
5 lpm, 10 lpm and 15 lpm. The transient variation of the molten fraction, the percentage of thermal energy storage and the average
Nusselt number are obtained. A significant effect of the inlet HTF temperature more than that of volume flow rate on the paraffin
melting process is observed. Also, empirical correlation for the molten fraction and percentage of heat stored are deduced in terms
of the operating conditions.
© 2017 Electronics Research Institute (ERI). Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords: PCM; Thermal energy storage; Melting; HTF

1. Introduction

The development of energy utilization, especially the renewable energy is greatly enhanced by the use of thermal
energy storage systems. This results in an increase in energy saving and raising energy efficiency. The storage of thermal
energy means to store thermal energy in a certain material for a time period and to give an opportunity for using it later.
There are two types of thermal energy storage: latent heat storage which is a storage system that utilizes a materials
ability to change phase at almost constant temperature, and sensible heat storage which involves the temperature
variation of a material (Dincer and Rosen, 2011; Sharma et al., 2009; Huang et al., 2009; Tan et al., 2010).

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: tayssir 010123@yahoo.com, Dr.Sherif 1976@yahoo.com (M. Tayssir).
Peer review under the responsibility of Electronics Research Institute (ERI).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesit.2016.10.008
2314-7172/© 2017 Electronics Research Institute (ERI). Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33 19

Nomenclature
AS Coil surface area, m2
c Specific heat, J/kg K
D Cylinder diameter
d Coil tube diameter, m
g Gravity acceleration = 9.8 m/s2
H Height of cylinder
h Convective heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K
k Thermal conductivity, W/m K
L Latent heat of fusion of PCM, kJ/kg K
mo Mass of PCM inside the vertical cylinder, kg
mm Melted mass of PCM inside the vertical cylinder, kg
q Surface heat flux
T Temperature, ◦ C
t Time, s
Vm Melted volume, m3
V· Actual HTF volume flow rate, lpm
v HTF velocity, m/s

Greek symbols
β Volumetric expansion coefficient, 1/K
Δ Difference
μ Dynamic viscosity, kg/m s
ρ Density, kg/m3

Subscripts
i Initial
l Liquid
PCM Pure PCM
PC Phase change
s Solid
S Surface
w Wall

Abbreviations
PCM Phase change material
HTF Heat transfer fluid
TES Thermal energy storage
LHTES Latent heat thermal energy storage

Dimensionless quantities
MF Molten fraction, —
Ste Stefan number, —
Fo Fourier number, —
Gr Grashof number, —
Nu Nusselt number, —
Re Reynolds number, —
20 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33

Phase change materials (PCMs) have a strong ability to store energy and have an excellent characteristic of constant
temperature in the course of absorbing or releasing energy. Melting process involves the natural convection effect
of the liquid phase. On the other hand solidification is normally considered as a pure conduction problem. A large
number of PCMs have been reported in thermal energy storage reviews in temperature range suitable for heating and
cooling (Hasnain, 1993; Gordzka, 2016). PCMs can be classified into organic, inorganic and eutectics. The organic
compounds include paraffin, non-paraffin whereas inorganic include salt hydrates, metallic and eutectics include:
inorganic–inorganic, inorganic–organic and organic–organic. Paraffin characteristics have been found to exhibit the
thermal energy storage application as PCMs. The transition temperature range of paraffin is 20–60 ◦ C and the range
of heat of fusion is 140–280 kJ/kg, its advantages are reasonable cost, commercial availability, high heat of fusion,
chemically inert and stable, low vapor pressure in the melting process and no phase change segregation (Hasnain, 1993,
2011). But there are some disadvantages such as low thermal conductivity and large volume change during phase change.
The technical grade paraffins can be used for latent heat storage where the pure paraffins are very expensive, mixture
of many hydrocarbons is used as technical grade of paraffins and it has a suitable melting temperature.
El-Sawi et al. (2014) studied the long-term performance of a centralized latent heat thermal energy storage system
that is integrated with a building mechanical ventilation system. Paraffin RT20 was used as a PCM and fins were
used to enhance its performance. Artificial neural network ANN was used to relate the relationship between the input
and outputs to reduce the computational time. The use of centralized LHTES system has high potential to reduce the
cooling load with a wider range of phase change temperature. Also, it reduces the cooling load from 21% to 36% when
the unit length is increased from 500 to 650 mm at a flow velocity of 1.5 m/s. Also, Prieto et al. (2016) examined the
energy performance of a heating power micro-cogeneration system applied to 450 m2 office space. A hot water thermal
energy system and two LHTES system based on PCM plate heat exchanger are compared and their performance is
analyzed under dynamic conditions. Palm acid provides better results than RT60 paraffin, with higher heat transfer
rates, more accumulated energy and less storage units needed to meet the heating demand.
Fornarelli et al. (2016) examined numerically using CFD simulations a LHTES system for concentrated solar plant
CSP. A shell-and-tube geometry composed by a vertical cylindrical tank, filled by a PCM and an inner steel tube,
in which the heat transfer fluid (HTF) flows, from the top to the bottom, is considered. The results showed that the
enhanced heat flux, due to natural convective flow, reduced about 30% the time needed to charge the heat storage.
Guelpa et al. (2013) investigated numerically using CFD the design improvements of a shell-and-tube latent heat
thermal energy storage unit using an approach based on the analysis of entropy generation. The different contributions
to the local entropy generation rate are computed and presented for both un-finned and finned systems. Fin arrangement
is then modified according with the analysis of entropy generation distribution in order to increase the efficiency of
the system. The results showed that the improved system allows reducing PCM solidification time and increasing the
second-law efficiency. Tay et al. (2012) conducted an investigation into characterizing and optimizing the useful latent
energy that can be stored within a tube-in-tank phase change thermal energy storage system, with particular reference
to off peak thermal storage applications for cooling buildings. The useful energy that can be stored within the PCM was
determined using a validated effectiveness-NTU model. This storage effectiveness was optimized delivering a storage
effectiveness of 68% and 75%. It was found that tube-in-tank systems can store more than 18 times more useful energy
than sensible storage systems per unit volume.
Rouault et al. (2014) designed and set up a real-scale LHTES device has been for air-cooling in the housing sector.
The system uses the thermal gap between night-time and daytime outdoor air to refresh the indoor air. The air passes
along a box-section horizontal tube bundle filled with paraffin wax as PCM. A 1-D model is proposed as a design
tool. An enthalpy formulation is used for the PCM energy balance equation. An experimental study is performed
which validates the modeling approach. Korti and Tlemsani (2016) experimentally investigated three different types
of paraffin as PCMs and water was used as heat transfer fluid HTF. The temperatures of PCM and HTF, solid fraction
and thermal effectiveness are analyzed. The effects of inlet temperature of HTF, flow rate of HTF and the type of PCM
used on the time for charging and discharging heat were discussed. Ling et al. (2015) investigated the performance of
mannitol (melting temperature = 166.7 ◦ C, enthalpy of phase change = 323 kJ/kg) in storing solar thermal energy and
producing hot water. Results showed mannitol can store high-level energy and the thermal energy storage and 14 kg
mannitol with latent heat activated can heat 100 L water from 30 up to 50 ◦ C in 6 h.
Iten and Liu (2014) stated that the two main keys in the design of thermal energy storage, TES, are the selection of
the appropriate PCMs and the heat exchanger formed by the PCM and the cold/hot heat sources. Weikl et al. (2014)
investigated the application of two types of heat exchangers under molten salt service in thermal energy storage in a
 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33 21

Fig. 1. Photograph of the test rig.

Table 1
Thermophysical properties of paraffin wax.
Specific heat (kJ/kg K) Thermal Density (kg/m3 ) Viscosity Diffusivity Latent heat Melting
conductivity (Pa s) (m2 /s) (kJ/kg) point (◦ C)
(W/m K)
Solid Liquid Solid Liquid

2.1 2.5 0.2 927 827 167.82 9.7 × 10−8 167.82 60

parabolic trough plant employing HTF-oil plants. A comparison of shell-and-tube and coil-wound type exchanger is
presented. It is shown, that the coil-wound type exchanger can leverage its specific advantages as e.g. compactness,
higher efficiency of heat transfer and inherent ability to withstand thermal shocks leading to a cost-effective and
innovative solution which ultimately enhances operation of a thermal energy storage plant and reduces investment cost
in various aspects. From the previous reviews, it is observed that there is a lack of studying LHTES systems using shell
and coil heat exchanger. For this reason in this work, an experimental setup is designed to study the thermal behavior
of paraffin as a PCM during thermal energy charging (melting process) by using coil and shell heat exchanger.

2. Experimental setup and procedure

2.1. Test rig

The test rig used in the present work consists of water heating tank, test section, circulating pump of 1 hp and control
valves. These elements are interconnected via piping system which is made from propylene tubes of 25 mm diameter
as shown in Fig. 1. Hot water is used as a HTF which passes from the water tank into the test section coil to give heat
to PCM, then drawn back into the tank by the circulating pump.
The test section can be considered as a shell and coil heat exchanger, the shell is a vertical cylinder of internal
diameter of 300 mm and the height of 600 mm and thickness of 2 mm. The shell is made of clear Perspex. The coil is
made from a copper tube which has an inner diameter of 17 mm, outer diameter of 19 mm and a length of 3250 mm.
The coil has an outer diameter of 100 mm and inner diameter of 62 mm and pitch of 30 mm the coil height is 300 mm.
The coil is placed concentrically inside the cylindrical shell; the entire cavity of test section is filled up to the coil height
with paraffin wax which is used as phase change material (PCM). The thermophysical properties of the used paraffin
wax are illustrated in Table 1. Due to symmetry, thirty calibrated K-type thermocouples each of diameter 0.25 mm and
length 2 m are fixed at the right half of test section only to record the temperature in both radial and axial directions. The
thermocouples are distributed at six radial locations 15 mm apart and five axial locations 75 mm apart as illustrated in
Fig. 2. These thermocouples are connected to HT10X heat transfer service unit which is connected to interface device
to record the temperature every 30 min on (PC).
The water flow rate through these test section is controlled via adjustable speed drive for single phase motor pump
as depicted in Fig. 3. The water in the tank is heated by means of electrical resistance heater of 3 kW. The water
22 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the test rig.

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of thermocouple distribution inside the cylindrical container.

tank temperature is adjusted and controlled by using a thermal control unit. The specifications of test rig control unit
components are illustrated in Table 2.
The hot water flow rate is measured by flow meter with stainless steel float, in a range of 1.8–18 lpm with accuracy
of ±5% of reading. A series of charging experiments are performed under different operating condition. The varied
parameters in the present study are the heat transfer fluid temperature during charge process 70, 80, 90 ◦ C and the
volume flow rates of 5, 10, 15 lpm (Fig. 4).
 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33 23

Table 2
Test rig control unit component.
Item No# Specification

Inverter (LG SV055iG5) 1 AC 200–230 V, 1 HP

Logical relay 6 24 Vdc coil voltage
Power supply 1 24-Vdc, 1 A
Circuit breaker (MC 06 A) 1 16 A
Panel meter (voltmeter) 2 AC 500 V
Panel meter (ammeter) 2 AC 10 A
Pushbutton 5 AC 200–250 V, 4 A
Alarm 1 AC 220 V
Wire 0.5 mm 1 × 100 m 100 m
DIN-rail (ω-bar) 2 Omega bar
Duct 3 2.5 cm x 4 cm x 2 m

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram for the drive system.

2.2. Experimental procedure

1. Turn on the circuit breaker of the control unit.

2. The temperature is regulated by adjusting the thermal control unit (TCU) to certain prescribed heating temperature.
3. Switch on the electric heater in the hot water tank to get the desired hot water temperature.
4. The adjustable speed drive (inverter) frequency was adjusted to give the required pump speed, consequently the
required water volume flow rate.
5. When the temperature control unit reaches the desired temperature switch on the pump.
6. Measure the volume flow rate by using the flow meter and record the temperature reading through 12 h for all
experiments.
24 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33

7. By using Tecplot software, the recorded temperature readings are utilized to draw the isotherms contours and the
melted volume Vm , can be obtained from these contours.

2.3. Data reduction

The melted mass is calculated as mm = ρl ∗ Vm (1)

The melted mass fraction is calculated from; MF = mm /Mo (2)
where; the total PCM mass is
M o = ρ 1 ∗ Vo (3)
The accumulative thermal energy stored within the test section is given by:
Qst = mm cs (TPC − Ti ) + mm L + ml cl (Tl − TPC ) + (Mo − mm )cs (Ts − Ti ) (4)
The percentage of the thermal energy stored is calculated as:
%TES = Qst /Qst,max (5)
Thesurfacefluxheat, qS = ΔQst / (AS Δt) (6)
where; AS = ␲ Do l; where Do is outer diameter of the coil tube, l is coil length
q
Theheattransfercoefficent, hisgivenby : h = s (7)
ΔT
where; ΔT = Tw − TPC , Tw = coil wall temperature which is taken as inlet HTF temperature, TPC = phase change
temperature.
Moreover, a number of non-dimensional parameters that govern the present problem are defined as follows:
Stefannumber, Ste = cl ∗ (Tw − TPC ) /L

ρ2 gβ(Tw − TPC )H2

Grashofnumber, Gr =
μ2PCM

kl t
Fouriernumber, Fo =
(ρc)l H2

ρHTF vDi
Reynoldsnumber, Re =
␮HTF

hH
Nusseltnumber, Nu =
kl

3. Results and discussions

3.1. Effect of varying inlet HTF temperature

3.1.1. Effect of varying inlet HTF temperature on molten volume fraction

Fig. 5 shows the effect of inlet HTF temperature on the molten mass fraction, MF, for HTF flow rate of 5 lpm. It is
observed from the figure that the melting process actually starts after about 100 min from the process operation. This
time is taken for raising the temperature of coil tube and overcome the contact resistance between the coil tube wall and
the paraffin wax PCM for all inlet fluid temperatures. Also, it is shown that the effect of inlet HTF on the molten volume
fraction increases as the time proceeds and this may be due to natural convection that becomes significant. The effect
of inlet HTF temperature for HTF flow rate of 10 lpm and 15 lpm is depicted in Figs. 6 and 7 respectively. Less time
 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33 25

Fig. 5. Timewise variation of melted volume fraction at 5 lpm with different tHTF .

Fig. 6. Timewise variation of melted volume fraction at 10 lpm with different tHTF .

Fig. 7. Timewise variation of melted volume fraction at 15 lpm with different tHTF .

was used for heating the coil and overcome the contact resistance especially at HTF temperature of 80 ◦ C and 90 ◦ C
respectively. Also, significant effect of inlet HTF temperature is observed during the experiment’s time especially for
HTF flow rate of 15 lpm.

3.1.2. Effect of inlet HTF temperature on heat stored percentage

The effect of inlet HTF temperature on the percentage of heat stored for HTF flow rate of 5 lpm is illustrated in
Fig. 8. It is obvious from the figure that the inlet HTF temperature is insignificant up to 350 min. Also, the maximum
percentage of heat stored is about 70% for inlet temperature of 90 ◦ C. For HTF flow rate of 10 lpm and 15 lpm, the
effect of inlet HTF temperature is depicted in Figs. 9 and 10 respectively. The effect of inlet HTF temperature is
26 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33

Fig. 8. Timewise variation of heat stored percentage at 5 lpm with different tHTF .

Fig. 9. Timewise variation of heat stored percentage at 10 lpm with different tHTF .

Fig. 10. Timewise variation of heat stored percentage at 15 lpm with different tHTF .

observed from the beginning of the experiment and the maximum percentage of heat stored reached is 80% for inlet
HTF temperature of 90 ◦ C and HTF flow rate of 15 lpm.

3.1.3. Effect of varying inlet HTF temperature on Nusselt number

The effect of the inlet HTF temperature on the average Nusselt number for HTF flow rate of 5 lpm is illustrated in
Fig. 11. It is observed that there is a sharp decrease of the average Nusselt number at the beginning of the experiment,
then it nearly becomes constant during the rest of the experiment time. This is may be due to the thinner thermal
boundary layer at the start of the melting processes (conduction dominance mode) followed by natural convection
dominance mode. Also, higher values of the average Nusselt number for lower inlet HTF temperature and lower HTF
flow rates. The same behavior is illustrated in Fig. 12 for HTF flow rate of 10 lpm. But for HTF flow rate of 15 lpm
 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33 27

Fig. 11. Timewise variation of Nusselt number at 5 lpm with different tHTF .

Fig. 12. Timewise variation of Nusselt number at 10 lpm with different tHTF .

Fig. 13. Timewise variation of Nusselt number at 15 lpm with different tHTF .

the timewise variation has the same behavior but the average Nusselt number values is higher for higher inlet HTF
temperature as depicted in Fig. 13.

3.2. Effect of varying HTF flow rate

3.2.1. Effect of varying HTF flow rate on molten volume fraction

A significant effect of HTF flow rate for inlet HTF temperature of 70 ◦ C is depicted in Fig. 14 after about 100 min
from the starting of the experiments. Also, the figure shows that the maximum molten mass fraction reached after 12 h
28 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33

0.6
Q=5LPM

Q=10LPM
0.4 Q=15LPM
MF

0.2

THTF =70⁰C
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time (min)

Fig. 14. Timewise variation of melted volume fraction for different HTF flow rate at 70 ◦ C.

0.8
Q=5LPM
Q=10LPM
0.6
Q=15LPM
MF

0.4

0.2
THTF =80⁰C

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time (min)

Fig. 15. Timewise variation of melted volume fraction for different HTF flow rate at 80 ◦ C.

1.0
Q=5LPM
0.8 Q=10LPM
Q=15LPM

0.6
MF

0.4

0.2
THTF =90⁰C
0.0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time ( min)

Fig. 16. Timewise variation of melted volume fraction for different HTF flow rate at 90 ◦ C.

is 29%, 39% and 48% for HTF flow rate of 5, 10 and 15 lpm respectively. Also, increasing the flow rate by 200%
reduces the charging time by 227%.
Fig. 15 illustrates the timewise variation of the molten volume fraction for different HTF flow rate of 5, 10 and
15 lpm and inlet HTF temperature of 80 ◦ C. It is observed that the maximum molten mass fraction ranges from 56%
to 70% after 12.5 h charging time for HTF flow rate of 5–15 lpm. Similarly the same behavior is observed for the inlet
HTF temperature of 90 ◦ C as shown in Fig. 16.

3.2.2. Effect of varying HTF flow rate heat stored percentage

The timewise variation of heat stored percentage for different HTF flow rate at inlet HTF temperature of 70 ◦ C is
illustrated in Fig. 17. Insignificant difference in TES for flow rate of 5 and 10 lpm while maximum difference in TES
of 8% is observed for HTF flow rate of 15 lpm. A maximum value of TES percentage of 48% is reached for flow rate of
 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33 29

100
5LPM
80 10LPM
15LPM
TES % 60

40

20
THTF =70⁰C
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time (min)

Fig. 17. Timewise variation of heat stored percentage for different HTF flow rate at 70 ◦ C.

100
5LPM
80 10LPM
15LPM
TES %

60

40

20
THTF =80⁰C

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time (min)

Fig. 18. Timewise variation of heat stored percentage for different HTF flow rate at 80 ◦ C.

100
5LPM
80 10LPM
15LPM
60
TES %

40
THTF =90⁰C
20

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time ( min)

Fig. 19. Timewise variation of heat stored percentage for different HTF flow rate at 90 ◦ C.

15 lpm and 70 ◦ C after about 12.5 h. So, it is not preferable to work the system under these conditions. Also, for inlet
HTF temperature of 80 ◦ C and 90 ◦ C the same behavior is observed in Figs. 18 and 19 with maximum TES percentages
of 63% and 81% respectively.

3.2.3. Effect of varying HTF flow rate on Nusselt number

The timewise variation of the average Nusselt number for different HTF flow rate at inlet HTF temperature of 70 ◦ C
is depicted in Fig. 20. A sharp decrease in the average Nusselt number at early times of melting process followed by
nearly constant value (steady state) for the average Nusselt number. Similarly, the same behavior is observed for inlet
30 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33

20
5LPM
16 10LPM
15LPM
12
THTF =70⁰C
Nu

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time (min)

Fig. 20. Nusselt number at 70 ◦ C with different volume flow rate.

20
5LPM
10LPM
15 15LPM
Nu

10 THTF =80⁰C

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time (min)

Fig. 21. Nusselt number at 80 ◦ C with different volume flow rate.

12
5LPM
10
10LPM
8 15LPM

6
Nu

THTF =90⁰C
4

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time ( min)

Fig. 22. Nusselt number at 90 ◦ C with different volume flow rate.

HTF temperatures of 80 ◦ C and 90 ◦ C is observed in Figs. 20 and 21 respectively. Also, insignificant effect for HTF
flow rate of the constant value of the average Nusselt number (Fig. 22).

3.3. Empirical correlations

The experimental data for the molten volume fraction, MF, is utilized to obtain the empirical correlations using
least square method. This is done for different inlet HTF temperature of 70, 80, and 90 ◦ C which corresponding to
Rayleigh number of 1.79 × 1010 , 3.58 × 1010 , and 5.36 × 1010 respectively; and Stefan number of 0.149, 0.298 and
0.447 respectively for HTF flow rate of 5, 10 and 15 lpm which corresponds to Reynolds number of 17,570, 35,140,
and 52,720 respectively (Figs. 23–28).
 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33 31

1.0
0.9 Ra = 1.79e10, Ste = 1.49e-01
0.8 Ra = 3.58e10, Ste = 2.98e-01
0.7 Ra = 5.36e10, Ste = 4.47e-01
Predicted Correlaon (8)
0.6
MF
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
MF

Fig. 23. Experimental data for the molten mass fraction vs. empirical correlation at Re = 17,570.

1.0
0.9 Ra = 1.79e10, Ste = 1.49e-01
0.8 Ra = 3.58e10, Ste = 2.98e-01
Ra = 5.36e10, Ste = 4.47e-01
0.7
Predicted Correlaon (9)
0.6
MF

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
MF

Fig. 24. Experimental data for the molten mass fraction vs. empirical correlation at Re = 35,140.

1.0
0.9 Ra = 1.79e10, Ste = 1.49e-01
0.8 Ra = 3.58e10, Ste = 2.98e-01
0.7 Ra = 5.36e10, Ste = 4.47e-01
Predicted Correlaon (10)
0.6
MF

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
MF

Fig. 25. Experimental data for the molten mass fraction vs. empirical correlation at Re = 52,720.

For Re = 17,570

MF = 8.2152 × 10−5 Fo1.8235 Ste0.636 Ra0.204 (8)

For Re = 35,140

MF = 4.458 × 10−2 Fo0.769 Ste0.6811 Ra0.0569 (9)

32 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33

100
90 Ra = 1.79e10, Ste = 1.49e-01
80 Ra = 3.58e10, Ste = 2.98e-01
70 Ra = 5.36e10, Ste = 4.47e-01
Predicted Correlaon (11)
TES % 60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
TES %

Fig. 26. Experimental data for the percentage of heat stored vs. empirical correlation at Re = 17,570.

100
90
80
70
60
TES %

50
40 Ra = 1.79e10, Ste = 1.49e-01
30 Ra = 3.58e10, Ste = 2.98e-01
Ra = 5.36e10, Ste = 4.47e-01
20
Predicted Correlaon (12)
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
TES %

Fig. 27. Experimental data for the percentage of heat stored vs. empirical correlation at Re = 35,140.

100
90 Ra = 1.79e10, Ste = 1.49e-01

80 Ra = 3.58e10, Ste = 2.98e-01

Ra = 5.36e10, Ste = 4.47e-01
70
Predicted Correlaon (13)
60
TES %

50
40
30
20
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
TES %

Fig. 28. Experimental data for the percentage of heat stored vs. empirical correlation at Re = 52,720.

For Re = 52,720
MF = 1.2962 × 10−1 Fo0.605 Ste0.798 Ra0.04485 (10)
Also, empirical correlations for the percentage of the energy storage for different Reynolds number as follows:-
For Re = 17,570
Q = 3.832Fo0.5436 Ste0.265 Ra0.0604 % (11)
 M. Tayssir et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 4 (2017) 18–33 33

For Re = 35,140
Q = 47.309Fo0.557 Ste0.5059 Ra−0.0255 % (12)
For Re = 52,720
Q = 1.275Fo0.588 Ste0.3616 Ra0.01204 % (13)

4. Conclusions

Experimental investigations have been carried out in order to study the thermal behavior of the paraffin wax during
thermal energy charging (melting process) by using water as a HTF flowing in a helical copper coil placed concentrically
in a vertical cylindrical container. The following conclusions can be obtained:-

1. The effect of the inlet HTF temperature on the molten mass fraction and the percentage of heat stored is higher than
that of the effect of HTF flow rate where the effect of HTF flow rate in noticeable only for inlet HTF temperature
of 90 ◦ C.
2. There is a need to enhance the charging process when the HTF temperature is 70 ◦ C (i.e. 10 ◦ C above the phase
change temperature).
3. Useful empirical correlations for each HTF flow rate are deduced for estimating the molten volume fraction and
the percentage of the thermal energy stored in terms of the operating conditions.

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