THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

COMPUTER SIMULATION OF MICRO-CHANNEL HEAT TRANSFER AND THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT
This paper constructs a thermal model for micro-channel heat transfer and thermal energy storage, including conduction, convection, and radiation models, as well as sensible and latent heat storage models. Simulations were performed using FLUENT and COMSOL, and experimental validation was combined. The micro-channel heat transfer model incorporates a modified Fourier law to account for scale effects, while the convection heat transfer model incorporates roughness and cross-section corrections. The energy storage model also includes corrections for specific heat capacity non-linearity and phase change supercooling. The simulations employed the SST k-ω model and multiphysics coupling, with a mesh size of 2.5 million elements after verification of mesh independence. Experiments used a copper micro-channel heat exchanger and composite phase change material, controlling the flow rate, heat flux, and fill level. Results show that the simulated and experimental heat transfer coefficients deviate by ≤3.2%, and the energy storage density deviates by ≤3.8%, validating the model's accuracy and providing a basis for optimizing micro-channel heat transfer and energy storage systems.
KEYWORDS
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2025-03-27
PAPER REVISED: 2025-07-21
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2025-08-23
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2026-02-22
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI2601069W
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2026, VOLUME 30, ISSUE No. 1, PAGES [69 - 77]
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© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence