Advanced thermal lattice Boltzmann method for the simulation of latent heat thermal energy in a porous storage unit

The current research expounds numerical investigation of key parameters effects, namely porosity ( ε= 0.4, 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8), Reynolds number (Re = 100, 200, 400 and 600) and Eckert number (Ec= 0, 1, 5 and 10) on the forced convective laminar flow and heat transfer through a horizontal porous channel filled with a metal foam structure impregnated with paraffin as a phase change material (PCM). The Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model under the local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) condition is deemed at the representative elementary volume (REV) scale. The fully coupled equations of Navier-Stokes, Poisson’s equation, energy equations, and continuity equation were handled numerically via a thermal single relaxation time lattice Boltzmann method (TSRT-LBM). To facilitate implementation, all LB equations are based on the same speed discretization scheme (D2Q9). Three-population distribution functions were applied to simulate the fluid flow, and temperatures of the fluid and solid phases. Previously, the numerical model was validated by available cases. Then, a comprehensive investigation has been performed to investigate the influence of the aforementioned dimensionless numbers. All LBM results are found to be highly consistent with other numerical works. The outcomes reported that at lower porosities, the energy and exergy efficiencies increased with increasing Re and Ec. However, for large porosity values, the efficiencies were optimum for a critical Re ~ 400. To sum up, it can be stated that the implemented thermal lattice Boltzmann method has been demonstrated as a suitable approach study the thermal sensible energy storage.