Melting performance analysis of heat transfer in metal foam-fin enhanced phase change cold storage

Phase change cold storage relies on heat transfer correlations to provide data references for its design, integration, and engineering applications. This work constructed a phase change cold storage unit enhanced by both metal foam and fins. Experimental and numerical methods were employed to investigate the effects of fin height, fin count, fin thickness, metal foam porosity, metal foam pore density, and metal foam material on the liquid fraction and the effective Nusselt number of the phase change material during the melting process. The results indicate that the metal foam porosity, the number of fins, and the fin height are the key parameters governing the heat transfer and melting characteristics on the PCM side. As the fin height increased from 17 mm to 57 mm, the maximum effective Nusselt number rose from 162.72 to 251.41. A fin thickness of 0.50 mm and a fin spacing of 10 mm may represent a more economical geometric configuration. Finally, this work derived correlations for the effective Nusselt number and liquid fraction, with the Fourier number, Stefan number, Rayleigh number and dimensionless geometric parameters as independent variables.