Purpose: This paper aims to theoritically investigate the free convection flow and heat transfer of a non-Newtonian fluid with pseudoplastic behavior in a cylindrical vertical cavity partially filled with a layer of a porous medium. Design/methodology/approach: The non-Newtonian behavior of the pseudoplastic liquid is described by using a power-law non-Newtonian model. There is a temperature difference between the internal and external cylinders. The porous layer is attached to the internal cylinder and has a thickness of D. Upper and lower walls of the cavity are well insulated. The governing equations are transformed into a non-dimensional form to generalize the solution. The finite element method is used to solve the governing equations numerically. The results are compared with the literature results in several cases and found in good agreement. Findings: The influence of the thickness of the porous layer, Rayleigh number and non-Newtonian index on the heat transfer behavior of a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic fluid is addressed. The increase of pseudoplastic behavior and increase of the thickness of the porous layer enhances the heat transfer. By increase of the porous layer from 0.6 to 0.8, the average Nusselt number increased from 0.15 to 0.25. The increase of non-Newtonian effects (decrease of the non-Newtonian power-law index) enhances the heat transfer rate. Originality/value: The free convection behavior of a pseudoplastic-non-Newtonian fluid in a cylindrical enclosure partially filled by a layer of a porous medium is addressed for the first time.

Thermal energy storage units conventionally have the drawback of slow charging response. Thus, heat transfer enhancement techniques are required to reduce charging time. Using nanoadditives is a promising approach to enhance the heat transfer and energy storage response time of materials that store heat by undergoing a reversible phase change, so-called phase change materials. In the present study, a combination of such materials enhanced with the addition of nanometer-scale graphene oxide particles (called nano-enhanced phase change materials) and a layer of a copper foam is proposed to improve the thermal performance of a shell-and-tube latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) unit filled with capric acid. Both graphene oxide and copper nanoparticles were tested as the nanometer-scale additives. A geometrically nonuniform layer of copper foam was placed over the hot tube inside the unit. The metal foam layer can improve heat transfer with an increase of the composite thermal conductivity. However, it suppressed the natural convection flows and could reduce heat transfer in the molten regions. Thus, a metal foam layer with a nonuniform shape can maximize thermal conductivity in conduction-dominant regions and minimize its adverse impacts on natural convection flows. The heat transfer was modeled using partial differential equations for conservations of momentum and heat. The finite element method was used to solve the partial differential equations. A backward differential formula was used to control the accuracy and convergence of the solution automatically. Mesh adaptation was applied to increase the mesh resolution at the interface between phases and improve the quality and stability of the solution. The impact of the eccentricity and porosity of the metal foam layer and the volume fraction of nanoparticles on the energy storage and the thermal performance of the LHTES unit was addressed. The layer of the metal foam notably improves the response time of the LHTES unit, and a 10% eccentricity of the porous layer toward the bottom improved the response time of the LHTES unit by 50%. The presence of nanoadditives could reduce the response time (melting time) of the LHTES unit by 12%, and copper nanoparticles were slightly better than graphene oxide particles in terms of heat transfer enhancement. The design parameters of the eccentricity, porosity, and volume fraction of nanoparticles had minimal impact on the thermal energy storage capacity of the LHTES unit, while their impact on the melting time (response time) was significant. Thus, a combination of the enhancement method could practically reduce the thermal charging time of an LHTES unit without a significant increase in its size.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate melting heat transfer of a non-Newtonian phase change material (PCM) in a cylindrical enclosure-space between two tubes using a deformed mesh method. Design/methodology/approach: Metal foam porous layers support the inner and outer walls of the enclosure. The porous layers and clear space of the enclosure are filled with PCM. The natural convection effects during the phase change are taken into account, and the governing equations for the molten region and solid region of the enclosure are introduced. The governing equations are transformed into non-dimensional form and then solved using finite element method. The results are compared with the literary works and found in good agreement. The non-Newtonian effects on the phase change heat transfer and melting front are studied. Findings: The results show that the increase of non-Newtonian effects (the decrease of the power-law index) enhances the heat melting process in the cavity at the moderate times of phase change heat transfer. The temperature gradients in porous metal foam over the hot wall are small, and hence, the porous layer notably increases the melting rate. When the melting front reaches the cold porous layer, strong non-linear behaviors of the melting front can be observed. Originality/value: The phase change heat transfer of non-Newtonian fluid in a cylindrical enclosure partially filled with metal foams is addressed for the first time.