Study on the thermal storage performance of a new electric heating device with phase change materials

The heating method for reducing the viscosity of crude oil is mainly electric heating currently. In order to meet the needs of environmental protection and industrial production, a new electric heating device with phase change thermal storage is designed by combining the crude oil viscosity reduction heating method, off-peak electricity, and phase change materials. Numerical simulation research is carried out for the phase change thermal storage and release performance of the device, and the structure is optimized according to the research results. Also, the influences of different inlet flow rates and metal foams porosity on the heat release process are analyzed. The results show that the outlet temperature decreases continuously with the increase of the working medium inlet flow rate. With the addition of nickel foam, the internal temperature of PCMs becomes more uniform as the porosity of the added metal foam decreases in the range of 0.7–1.0. Using this device to reduce the viscosity of crude oil cannot only maintain high heat exchange efficiency but also reduce production costs, which provides a reference for the design and operation of crude oil viscosity reduction methods.