A Numerical Parametric Study of the Growth of Ice Formation Around a Vertical Tube, During the Full Charging Process of an Indirect, Area-Constrained, Ice-on-Pipe Storage Tank

A parametric numerical investigation regarding the ice layer growth outside a vertical tube is investigated. It encompasses heat transfer and removal of energy, applicable to indirect, area-constrained, ice-on-pipe storage tanks. The study is carried out in a vertical annulus, with the inner vertical wall representing one of the tubes packed into a typical storage tank. Further, the outer vertical wall determines the maximum border for the ice layer growth under the conditions established in the present study, corresponding to a full charging process in such devices. Our task is to provide helpful qualitative results for the investigation of ice storage tank heat transfer performance, considering changes in the following parameters: aspect ratio, radius ratio, Grashof and Stefan numbers. For the mathematical model adopted to simulate transient natural convection of water with phase-change (solidification), it was utilized a model based on the finite volume method to solve the set of coupled conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy.