Temperature-Staged Thermal Energy Storage Enabling Low Thermal Exergy Loss Reflux Boiling in Full Spectrum Solar Systems

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry J. Hendricks ◽  
Bill J. Nesmith ◽  
Jonathan Grandidier
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Flux ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
High Heat ◽  
High Heat Flux ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Solar Systems

Hybrid full spectrum solar systems (FSSS) designed to capture and convert the full solar wavelength spectrum use hybrid solar photovoltaic/thermodynamic cycles that require low thermal exergy loss systems capable of transferring high thermal energy rates and fluxes with very low temperature differentials and losses. One approach to achieving this capability are high-heat-flux reflux boiling systems that take advantage of high heat transfer boiling and condensation mechanisms. Advanced solar systems are also intermittent by their nature and their electrical generation is often out-of-phase with electric utility power demand, and their required power system cycling reduces efficiency, performance (dispatchability), lifetime, and reliability. High temperature thermal energy storage (TES) at 300–600°C enables these reflux boiling systems to simultaneously store thermal energy internally to increase the energy dispatchability of the associated solar system, as this can increase the power generation profile by several hours (up to 6–10 hours) per day. Many TES phase change materials (PCM’s) exist including KNO3, NaNO3, LiBr/KBr, MgCl2/NaCl/KCl, Zn/Mg, and CuCl/NaCl, which have various operating melting points and different latent heats of fusion. Common, cost effective TES PCM’s are FeCl2/NaCl/KCl mixtures, whose phase change temperature can be varied and controlled by simple composition adjustments. This paper presents and discusses unique “temperature-staged” thermal energy storage configurations using these TES materials and analysis of such systems integrated into high-heat-flux reflux boiling systems. In this specific application, the TES materials are designed to operate at staged temperatures surrounding an operating design point near 350°C, while providing 18 kW of source heat transfer to operate a thermoacoustic power system during off-sun conditions (e.g., temporary cloud conditions, after sun-down). This work discusses relevant configurations, and critical thermal and entropy models of the TES configurations, which show the inherent minimization of thermal exergy during critical heat transfers within the configurations and systems envisioned.

scholarly journals Numerical modelling of phase change material melting process embedded in porous media: Effect of heat storage size

2019 ◽  
Vol 234 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pouyan Talebizadeh Sardari ◽  
Gavin S Walker ◽  
Mark Gillott ◽  
David Grant ◽  
Donald Giddings
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Flux ◽  
Porous Medium ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Phase Change Material ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Change Material

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of enclosure size in latent heat thermal energy storage systems embedded in a porous medium for domestic usage of latent heat thermal energy storage heat exchangers. A 2-D rectangular enclosure is considered as the computational domain to study the heat transfer improvement for a phase change material embedded in a copper foam considering a constant heat flux from the bottom surface. Different dimensions of the composite system are examined compared with a system without a porous medium. The thermal non-equilibrium model with enthalpy-porosity method is employed for the effects of porous medium and phase change in the governing equations, respectively. The phase change material liquid fraction, temperature, velocity, stream lines and the rate of heat transfer are studied. The presence of a porous medium increases the heat transfer significantly, but the improvement in melting performance is strongly related to the system's dimensions. For the dimensions of 200 × 100 mm (W × H), the melting time of porous-phase change material with the porosity of 95% is reduced by 17% compared with phase change material-only system. For the same storage volume and total amount of thermal energy added, the melting time is lower for the system with a lower height, especially for the phase change material-only system due to a higher area of the input heat. The non-dimensional analysis results in curve-fitting correlations between the liquid fraction and Fo.Ste.Ra −0.02 for rectangular latent heat thermal energy storage systems for both phase change material-only and composite-phase change material systems within the parameter range of 1.16 <  Ste < 37.13, 0 <  Fo < 1.5, 2.9 × 104 <  Ra < 9.5 × 108, 0 <  L f < 1 and 0 <  Fo.Ste.Ra −0.02 < 0.57. Over a range of system's volume, heat flux and surface area of the input heat flux, the benefit of composite phase change material is variable and, in some cases, is negligible compared with the phase change material-only system.

Grid-Independent Air Conditioning Using Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) and Reversible Thermosiphon Technology: Experimental Results

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bidzina Kekelia ◽  
Kent S. Udell
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Air Conditioning ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
High Heat Flux ◽  
High Heat Transfer

Thermal energy storage in subsurface soils can produce both inexpensive capacity and storage timescales of the order of a year. In concept, storing excess ambient or solar heat in summer for future winter use and winter “cold” for summer air conditioning can provide essentially zero-carbon space heating and cooling. An innovative ground coupling using a reversible (pump-assisted) thermosiphon with its high heat flux characteristics, intrinsic to two-phase heat pipes, as an inground heat exchanger is proposed and its performance is evaluated in a series of lab-scale experiments. Extraction and injection of heat from/into the water-saturated sand with a single thermosiphon unit representing a cell in an array of thermosiphons is modeled. These results demonstrate that near freezing point of water, due to weak or no natural convection, heat transfer is mainly due to conduction. Also, due to low energy input requirement for pumping working fluid and high heat transfer potential of the reversible thermosiphon, seasonal thermal energy or “cold” storage can be provided for low energy air conditioning applications.

scholarly journals Latent Heat Phase Change Heat Transfer of a Nanoliquid with Nano–Encapsulated Phase Change Materials in a Wavy-Wall Enclosure with an Active Rotating Cylinder

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2590
Author(s):  
S. A. M. Mehryan ◽  
Kaamran Raahemifar ◽  
Leila Sasani Gargari ◽  
Ahmad Hajjar ◽  
Mohamad El Kadri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Wavy Wall ◽  
Governing Equations ◽  
Stefan Number ◽  
Change Material

A Nano-Encapsulated Phase-Change Material (NEPCM) suspension is made of nanoparticles containing a Phase Change Material in their core and dispersed in a fluid. These particles can contribute to thermal energy storage and heat transfer by their latent heat of phase change as moving with the host fluid. Thus, such novel nanoliquids are promising for applications in waste heat recovery and thermal energy storage systems. In the present research, the mixed convection of NEPCM suspensions was addressed in a wavy wall cavity containing a rotating solid cylinder. As the nanoparticles move with the liquid, they undergo a phase change and transfer the latent heat. The phase change of nanoparticles was considered as temperature-dependent heat capacity. The governing equations of mass, momentum, and energy conservation were presented as partial differential equations. Then, the governing equations were converted to a non-dimensional form to generalize the solution, and solved by the finite element method. The influence of control parameters such as volume concentration of nanoparticles, fusion temperature of nanoparticles, Stefan number, wall undulations number, and as well as the cylinder size, angular rotation, and thermal conductivities was addressed on the heat transfer in the enclosure. The wall undulation number induces a remarkable change in the Nusselt number. There are optimum fusion temperatures for nanoparticles, which could maximize the heat transfer rate. The increase of the latent heat of nanoparticles (a decline of Stefan number) boosts the heat transfer advantage of employing the phase change particles.

scholarly journals Experimental and Computational Investigations of Phase Change Thermal Energy Storage Canisters

2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mounir Ibrahim ◽  
Pavel Sokolov ◽  
Thomas Kerslake ◽  
Carol Tolbert
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Radiation Heat Transfer ◽  
Convection Heat Transfer ◽  
Melting Time ◽  
Radiation Heat ◽  
Space Experiments

Two sets of experimental data for cylindrical canisters with thermal energy storage applications were examined in this paper: 1) Ground Experiments and 2) Space Experiments. A 2-D computational model was developed for unsteady heat transfer (conduction and radiation) with phase-change. The radiation heat transfer employed a finite volume method. The following was found in this study: 1) Ground Experiments, the convection heat transfer is equally important to that of the radiation heat transfer; Radiation heat transfer in the liquid is found to be more significant than that in the void; Including the radiation heat transfer in the liquid resulted in lower temperatures (about 15 K) and increased the melting time (about 10 min.); Generally, most of the heat flow takes place in the radial direction. 2) Space Experiments, Radiation heat transfer in the void is found to be more significant than that in the liquid (exactly the opposite to the Ground Experiments); Accordingly, the location and size of the void affects the performance considerably; Including the radiation heat transfer in the void resulted in lower temperatures (about 40 K). [S0199-6231(00)00304-X]

Heat Transfer Enhancement in Compact Phase Change Microchannel Heat Exchangers for High Flux Laser Diodes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jensen Hoke ◽  
Todd Bandhauer ◽  
Jack Kotovsky ◽  
Julie Hamilton ◽  
Paul Fontejon
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Flux ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Flow Boiling ◽  
Laser Diodes ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
High Heat Flux ◽  
Maximum Heat ◽  
Average Maximum

Liquid-vapor phase change heat transfer in microchannels offers a number of significant advantages for thermal management of high heat flux laser diodes, including reduced flow rates and near constant temperature heat rejection. Modern laser diode bars can produce waste heat loads >1 kW cm−2, and prior studies show that microchannel flow boiling heat transfer at these heat fluxes is possible in very compact heat exchanger geometries. This paper describes further performance improvements through area enhancement of microchannels using a pyramid etching scheme that increases heat transfer area by ∼40% over straight walled channels, which works to promote heat spreading and suppress dry-out phenomenon when exposed to high heat fluxes. The device is constructed from a reactive ion etched silicon wafer bonded to borosilicate to allow flow visualization. The silicon layer is etched to contain an inlet and outlet manifold and a plurality of 40μm wide, 200μm deep, 2mm long channels separated by 40μm wide fins. 15μm wide 150μm long restrictions are placed at the inlet of each channel to promote uniform flow rate in each channel as well as flow stability in each channel. In the area enhanced parts either a 3μm or 6μm sawtooth pattern was etched vertically into the walls, which were also scalloped along the flow path with the a 3μm periodicity. The experimental results showed that the 6μm area-enhanced device increased the average maximum heat flux at the heater to 1.26 kW cm2 using R134a, which compares favorably to a maximum of 0.95 kw cm2 dissipated by the plain walled test section. The 3μm area enhanced test sections, which dissipated a maximum of 1.02 kW cm2 showed only a modest increase in performance over the plain walled test sections. Both area enhancement schemes delayed the onset of critical heat flux to higher heat inputs.

Solid/Liquid Phase Change Heat Transfer in Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Zhou ◽  
C. Y. Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Calcium Chloride ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change Materials ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Chloride Hexahydrate

Phase change materials (PCMs) have been widely used for thermal energy storage systems due to their capability of storing and releasing large amounts of energy with a small volume and a moderate temperature variation. Most PCMs suffer the common problem of low thermal conductivity, being around 0.2 and 0.5 for paraffin and inorganic salts, respectively, which prolongs the charging and discharging period. In an attempt to improve the thermal conductivity of phase change materials, the graphite or metallic matrix is often embedded within PCMs to enhance the heat transfer. This paper presents an experimental study on heat transfer characteristics of PCMs embedded with open-celled metal foams. In this study both paraffin wax and calcium chloride hexahydrate are employed as the heat storage media. The transient heat transfer behavior is measured. Compared to the results of pure PCMs samples, the investigation shows that the additions of metal foams can double the overall heat transfer rate during the melting process. The results of calcium chloride hexahydrate are also compared with those of paraffin wax.

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