%0 Journal Article %A Khatra, Laila %A El Qarnia, Hamid %A El Ganaoui, Mohammed %A Lakhal, El Khadir %D 2015 %I Begell House %K phase change material, solidification, fin, enthalpy method, latent heat storage unit %N 4 %P 293-312 %R 10.1615/ComputThermalScien.2015013917 %T NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF HEAT TRANSFER DURING SOLIDIFICATION IN A RECTANGULAR ENCLOSURE WITH INTERNALLY HORIZONTAL PARTIAL FINS %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/648192910890cd0e,4ce7f7ee2f0dfe8f,6842501d54468097.html %V 7 %X The paper aims to investigate numerically the thermal and flow characteristics of an internally finned rectangular enclosure during the solidification process of a superheated phase change material (PCM). This work is motivated by the need to intensify heat transfer and accelerate the discharge process in latent heat storage units. A mathematical model is developed and a fixed-grid enthalpy formulation is adopted for modeling the solidification process coupling with convection-conduction heat transfer. The finite volume method was used for discretization. The obtained numerical results are compared with experimental and numerical ones found in the literature and reasonable agreement is obtained. Numerical investigations were carried out to evaluate the effects of the aspect ratios of the rectangular enclosure, A, and fins, Af , on the heat transfer enhancement, by keeping the mass of the PCM and fins constant. Solutions are obtained for aspect ratios A (ranging from 3 to 8) and Af (ranging from 2.69 to 13.89). A comparative study of finned and unfinned enclosures shows clearly that introducing fins weakens the undesirable natural convection, improves the nondimensional rate of heat extraction, and assures rapid solidification. Results indicate that for an aspect ratio A = 4 and in the range of the aspect ratio Af explored in this study, the nondimensional solidification time is reduced by 17.74%. The results also reveal that for a fin aspect ratio of Af = 5, the nondimensional solidification time is reduced by 49.48% when the aspect ratio of the enclosure, A, varies from 3 to 8. %8 2016-01-05