scholarly journals Numerical Modeling of the Melting Process in a Shell and Coil Tube Ice Storage System for Air-Conditioning Application

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (13) ◽  
pp. 2726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Soheil Mousavi Ajarostaghi ◽  
Sébastien Poncet ◽  
Kurosh Sedighi ◽  
Mojtaba Aghajani Delavar
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Numerical Modeling ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Cold Storage ◽  
Air Conditioning ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Melting Process ◽  
Melting Time ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Geometrical Parameters

Cold thermal energy storage, as a promising way of peak-shifting, can store energy by using cheap electricity during off-peak hours and regenerate electricity during peak times to reduce energy consumption. The most common form of cold storage air conditioning technology is ice on the coil energy storage system. Most of the previous studies so far about ice on coil cold storage system have been done experimentally. Numerical modeling appears as a valuable tool to first better understand the melting process then to improve the thermal performance of such systems by efficient design. Hence, this study aims to simulate the melting process of phase change materials in an internal melt ice-on-coil thermal storage system equipped with a coil tube. A three-dimensional numerical model is developed using ANSYS Fluent 18.2.0 to evaluate the dynamic characteristics of the melting process. The effects of operating parameters such as the inlet temperature and flowrate of the heat transfer fluid are investigated. Also, the effects of the coil geometrical parameters—including coil pitch, diameter, and height—are also considered. Results indicate that conduction is the dominant heat transfer mechanism at the initial stage of the melting process. Increasing either the inlet temperature or the flowrate shortens the melting time. It is also shown that the coil diameter shows the most pronounced effect on the melting rate compared to the other investigated geometrical parameters.

scholarly journals Thermodynamic Analysis of a High-Temperature Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage System

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 6634
Author(s):  
David W. MacPhee ◽  
Mustafa Erguvan
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Entropy Generation ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Volume Ratio ◽  
Melting Time ◽  
Inlet Temperature

Thermal energy storage (TES) technologies are becoming vitally important due to intermittency of renewable energy sources in solar applications. Since high energy density is an important parameter in TES systems, latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) system is a common way to store thermal energy. Though there are a great number of experimental studies in the field of LHTES systems, utilizing computational codes can yield relatively quick analyses with relatively small expense. In this study, a numerical investigation of a LHTES system has been studied using ANSYS FLUENT. Results are validated with experiments, using hydroquinone as a phase-change material (PCM), which is external to Therminol VP-1 as a heat transfer fluid (HTF) contained in pipes. Energy efficiency and entropy generation are investigated for different tube/pipe geometries with a constant PCM volume. HTF inlet temperature and flow rate impacts on the thermodynamic efficiencies are examined including viscous dissipation effects. Highest efficiency and lowest entropy generation cases exist when when flow rates are lowest due to low viscous heating effects. A positive relation is found between energy efficiency and volume ratio while it differs for entropy generation for higher and lower velocities. Both efficiency and entropy generation decreased with decreasing HTF inlet temperature. The novelty of this study is the analysis of the effect of volume ratio on system performance and PCM melting time which ultimately proved to be the most dominant factor among those considered herein. However, as PCM solidification and melting time is of primary importance to system designers, simply minimizing entropy generation by decreasing volume ratio in this case does not lead to a practically optimal system, merely to decrease heat transfer entropy generation. Therefore, caution should be taken when applying entropy analyses to any LHTES storage system as entropy minimization methods may not be appropriate for practicality purposes.

Role of Heating Location on the Performance of a Natural Convection Driven Melting Process Inside a Square-Shaped Thermal Energy Storage System

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ojas Satbhai ◽  
Subhransu Roy ◽  
Sudipto Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Entropy Generation ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Melting Process ◽  
Energy Storage System ◽  
Thermodynamic Performance ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage System

Abstract In this work, numerical experiments were performed to compare the heat transfer and thermodynamic performance of melting process inside the square-shaped thermal energy storage system with three different heating configurations: an isothermal heating from left side-wall or bottom-wall or top-wall and with three adiabatic walls. The hot wall is maintained at a temperature higher than the melting temperature of the phase change material (PCM), while all other walls are perfectly insulated. The transient numerical simulations were performed for melting Gallium (a low Prandtl number Pr = 0.0216, low Stefan number, Ste = 0.014, PCM with high latent heat to density ratio) at moderate Rayleigh number (Ra ≊ 105). The transient numerical simulations consist of solving coupled continuity, momentum, and energy equation in the unstructured formulation using the PISO algorithm. In this work, the fixed grid, a source-based enthalpy-porosity approach has been adopted. The heat transfer performance of the melting process was analyzed by studying the time evolution of global fluid fraction, Nusselt number at the hot wall, and volume-averaged normalized flow-kinetic-energy. The thermodynamic performance was analyzed by calculating the local volumetric entropy generation rates and absolute entropy generation considering both irreversibilities due to the finite temperature gradient and viscous dissipation. The bottom-heating configuration yielded the maximum Nusselt number but has a slightly higher total change in entropy generation compared to other heating configurations.

scholarly journals Enhanced Thermal Characteristics of NG Based Acetamide Composites

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 4227-4231 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change Materials ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Thermal Characteristics ◽  
Energy Storage System ◽  
Melting Time

Fatty acids are a distinguished category of phase change materials (PCM). However, their inferior thermal conductivity value restricts their potential for thermal energy storage system. Carbonaceous nanomaterials have emerged as promising thermal conductivity enhancer materials for organic PCMs. The present study focuses on preparing a novel PCM nanocomposite comprising of small amount of nanographite (NG) in molten acetamide, an organic PCM, for elevation of the thermal characteristics and examining the trend of the nanocomposite through the course of charging / discharging process. These PCM-nanocomposites are prepared by dispersing NG in molten acetamide with weight fractions of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 %. The scanning electronic microscopic (SEM) analysis was conducted for the characterization of PCM nanocomposite. The energy storage behaviour of the prepared nanocomposites were analyzed with the help of differential scanning calorimeter instruments, which showed that there is no observable variation in the melting point of the nanocomposite, and a decline in the latent heat values. Furthermore, thermal conductivity trend of the nanocomposites caused by NG addition was investigated, which indicated enhancement of thermal conductivity with increasing NG concentration. Further, nanocomposites with a 0.4 wt. % of NG, displayed appreciable increase in rate of heat transfer, reducing melting time and solidification time by 48 and 47 %, respectively. The prepared PCM nanocomposites displayed superior heat transfer trend, permitting substantial thermal energy storage.

scholarly journals Enhancement of Heat Transfer in PCM by Cellular Zn-Al Structure

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Naplocha ◽  
A. Koniuszewska ◽  
J. Lichota ◽  
J.W. Kaczmar
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Open Porosity ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Critical Parameters ◽  
Melting Time ◽  
Ceramic Mold ◽  
Al Alloy

Abstract Development of open cellular metal foam technology based on investment casting applying the polyurethane pattern is discussed. Technological process comprises preparing of the ceramic mold applying PUR foam as the pattern, firing of the mold, pouring of the liquid Zn-Al alloy into the mold and washing out of the ceramic material from cellular casting. Critical parameters such as the temperature of mold and poured metal, design of gating system affected by metalostatic pressure allowed to produce castings with cellular structure characterized by the open porosity. Metal cellular foams with the open porosity embedded in phase change material (PCM) enhance heat transfer and reduce time operations in energy storage systems. Charging and discharging were performed at the laboratory accumulator by heating and cooling with flowing water characterized by the temperatures of 97-100°C. Temperature measurements were collected from 7 different thermocouples located in the accumulator. In relation to the tests with pure paraffin, embedding of the metal Zn-Al cellular foam in paraffin significantly decreases temperature gradients and melting time of paraffin applied as PCM characterized by the low thermal conductivity. Similarly, reduction of discharging time by this method improves the efficiency of thermal energy storage system applied in solar power plants or for the systems of energy efficient buildings.

Effect of Geometric Configurations on the Thermal Performance Of Encapsulated PCMs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Mohaghegh ◽  
Shohel Mahmud ◽  
Syeda Tasnim
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Phase Change Materials ◽  
Mechanical Stability ◽  
Melting Process ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Melting Time

Abstract The integration of thermal energy storage (TES) systems with Phase Change Materials (PCMs) is a promising technique not only for storing thermal energy, also for thermal management applications. Encapsulation is a safe and efficient integration technique of using PCM, which has various advantages such as PCM protection, mechanical stability, leakage prevention and, diversified shapes and sizes. The thermal performance of these systems is heavily dependent on the form and geometry of the encapsulating PCM. Various literature has investigated PCM encapsulation for different applications; however, they were limited to just a few common geometries, i.e., rectangular, spherical, and cylindrical. The present research is aimed to investigate the effect of shape/geometry on the thermal performance of encapsulated PCMs and visualize the PCM melting process to a further improvement in the thermal performance of TES systems for different applications. For this purpose, transient heat transfer and the melting process of the same volume of PCM encapsulated in four different geometrical configurations of the capsules, including the common encapsulation shapes such as spherical, cubical, cylindrical, and conical shape as less studied and new proposed shape, are studied. A mathematical model is developed and numerically solved to study the energy transport processes inside the enclosures. The melting process is visualized numerically to track the solid-liquid interface during the phase change. Moreover, the heat transfer characteristics such as melting fraction and energy stored in the system and their temporal variation during the phase change process are determined. A comparison of the four cases in terms of melting rate and energy storage is carried out, as well. The results show that the conical capsule exhibits the best thermal performance with a total melting time of 72 minutes. While the cubical capsule requires 111 minutes to complete the melting process.

scholarly journals Thermal Performance of a PCM-Based Thermal Energy Storage with Metal Foam Enhancement

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 3275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Chen ◽  
Xiaolei Li ◽  
Xinlin Xia ◽  
Chuang Sun ◽  
Rongqiang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Thermal Energy Storage ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Fluid Phase ◽  
Heat Transfer Fluid ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Release Process

The energy transport inside a phase change material (PCM) based thermal energy storage system using metal foam as an enhancement technique is investigated numerically. The paraffin is used as the PCM and water as the heat transfer fluid (HTF). The transient heat transfer during the charging and discharging processes is solved, based on the volume averaged conservation equations. The flow in PCM/foam and HTF/foam composites is modelled by the Forchheimer-extended Darcy equation, while the two-temperature model is employed to account for the local thermal non-equilibrium effect between the foam matrix and fluid phase. The results show that the overall performance is greatly improved by inserting metal foam in both HTF and PCM sides. A nearly 84.9% decrease in the time needed for the total process is found compared with the case of pure PCM, and 40% compared with the case of metal foam insert only in the PCM side. Foam porosity and HTF inlet temperature greatly affect the dynamic heat storage/release process.

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