Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) is essential for eliminating the discrepancy between energy supply and demand as well as for improving the utilization rate of low-grade industrial waste heat. This paper aims to solve the problem of long energy charge time in finned-plate LHTES device. In the present study, the LHTES unit is designed with three different orientations of the fin plates: A denotes a horizontal unit with fins; B and C denote vertical units with transverse and longitudinal fins, respectively. First, the melting process with different sizes and distributions of fins is investigated and the effect of fin thickness on the melting time is analysed. When obtaining the optimized fin parameters, two potential strengthening strategies (rippling fins and fins of non-equal length) are applied to further improve the melting performance of the device. The results show that long and thick fins can remarkably ameliorate the melting performance of paraffin, and the melting rate for the three orientations is of the order A>C>B. Compared with the finless structure, the melting rate increased by 4.52, 3.63, and 3.62 times for the three orientations of A, B, and C, respectively, for a fin length of 50 mm and fin number equal to 10. The use of rippling fins can reduce the melting time up to 4.1%, 5.4%, and 10.7% for the three orientations of A, B, and C, respectively, compared to using equal-length homogeneous fins with a thickness of 3 mm. Moreover, for orientations A and B, by adjusting fin length arrangement or using full fins, 11.4 and 46% reduction in melting time could be achieved compared with the configuration with a fin length of 50 mm and a thickness of 3 mm. The proposed innovative finned-plate LHTES device provides a useful reference and groundwork for the future large-scale utilization of the LHTES system.

潜热蓄热（LHTES）对于消除能源供需矛盾，提高低品位工业余热利用率至关重要。本文旨在解决翅片板LHTES装置能量充电时间长的问题。在本研究中，LHTES 单元设计为具有三种不同方向的翅片板：A 表示带翅片的水平单元；B 和 C 分别表示具有横向和纵向翅片的垂直单元。首先，研究了不同尺寸和分布的翅片的熔化过程，分析了翅片厚度对熔化时间的影响。在获得优化后的鳍片参数时，应用了两种潜在的强化策略（波纹翅片和不等长翅片）以进一步提高设备的熔化性能。结果表明，长而厚的翅片能显着改善石蜡的熔化性能，三个取向的熔化速率均在A > C > B. 与无翅片结构相比，在翅片长度为50mm、翅片数为10的情况下，A、B、C三个取向的熔化速率分别提高了4.52、3.63和3.62倍。与使用厚度为 3 mm 的等长均质翅片相比，翅片可以将 A、B 和 C 三个取向的熔化时间分别减少 4.1%、5.4% 和 10.7%。此外，对于方向 A 和 B，通过调整翅片长度排列或使用全翅片，与翅片长度为 50 mm 和厚度为 3 mm 的配置相比，可以实现 11.4% 和 46% 的熔化时间减少。所提出的创新鳍板 LHTES 装置为未来大规模利用 LHTES 系统提供了有用的参考和基础。