During charging and discharging processes, the heat transfer behavior of the encapsulated ice thermal energy storage (TES) system changes during downstream case and this should be taken into account since the temperature of heat transfer fluid (HTF) and especially the heat transfer coefficient varies considerably around each capsule, This requires a careful study of the problem with variable heat transfer coefficient to contribute to the state-of-the-art. This has been the primary motivation behind the present study. Here, we first develop a new heat transfer coefficient correlation by simulating a series of 120 numerical experiments for different capsule diameters, mass flow rates and temperatures of HTF and second undertake a comprehensive numerical analysis using the temperature based fixed grid solution with control Volume approach for studying the heat transfer behavior of an encapsulated ice TIES system. Thirdly, we validate the present numerical model and the new correlation with some experimental data obtained from the literature, and hence a good agreement is obtained between the model results and experimental data. The results indicate that the heat transfer coefficient varies greatly during downstream and highly affects the heat transfer taking place during the process. So, the solutions with constant heat transfer coefficient appear to be unreliable for analysis and system optimization. The results also show that the solidification process is chiefly governed by the magnitude of Stefan number, capsule diameter and capsule row number. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.