Experimental investigation and performance analysis of a fin tube phase change cold storage unit for high temperature cooling application

• A fin tube phase change cold storage unit for high temperature cooling application was developed.
• The charging performance was experimentally investigated.
• The structural parameters were optimized.

A fin tube phase change cold storage unit based upon self-developed C–L acid (capric and lauric acid) PCM with the phase change temperature of 14.97 °C for high temperature cooling application was designed. The charging performance of the cold storage unit was experimentally investigated. Moreover, the performance analysis based upon the charging performance was conducted for the purpose of optimizing the structural parameters. It is shown that the whole charging process of the optimized scheme is faster than that of the experimental unit by 26.3%. In practical applications, two or more such fin tube phase change cold storage units in parallel can be used to meet different cold storage demand of high temperature cooling systems in buildings.