Abstract
The irreversibility of storage unit furnished with branch shaped fins was evaluated in this paper. The various arrangements of fins contain three levels for number of curved fins and all branches connected to inner cold wall. The conduction mechanism has been boosted with dispersing nanoparticles (TiO2) in to paraffin (n-eicosane). The simulations for two dimensional geometries with considering laminar flow for liquid paraffin have been presented via FVM. The validation with solidification data of previous article proves the good accommodation. The required time for freezing of PCM for case with N = 2, 4 and 8 are 1.034, 1.027 and 1.020 times greater than that of NEPCM. As distance of curved fins from each other increases from 12.5 to 25 and 50 mm, the period declines around 23.34 % and 28.41 %, respectively. The minimum need time can be obtained when N = 8 and ϕ = 0.03 which takes 9965 s to reach full freezing.
•The irreversibility of storage unit with branch shaped fins was evaluated.•The conduction mechanism has been boosted with dispersing nanoparticles (TiO2).•As distance increases the period declines around 28.41 %.•The minimum need time can be obtained when N = 8 and ϕ = 0.03 which takes 9965 s.