scholarly journals A Dimensionless Model for Transient Turbulent Natural Convection in Isochoric Vertical Thermal Energy Storage Tubes

Author(s):  
Reza Baghaei Lakeh ◽  
Richard E. Wirz ◽  
Pirouz Kavehpour ◽  
Adrienne S. Lavine

In this study, turbulent natural convection heat transfer during the charge cycle of an isochoric vertically oriented thermal energy storage (TES) tube is studied computationally and analytically. The storage fluids considered in this study (supercritical CO2 and liquid toluene) cover a wide range of Rayleigh numbers. The volume of the storage tube is constant and the thermal storage happens in an isochoric process. A computational model was utilized to study turbulent natural convection during the charge cycle. The computational results were further utilized to develop a conceptual and dimensionless model that views the thermal storage process as a hot boundary layer that rises along the tube wall and falls in the center to replace the cold fluid in the core. The dimensionless model predicts that the dimensionless mean temperature of the storage fluid and average Nusselt number of natural convection are functions of L/D ratio, Rayleigh number, and Fourier number that are combined to form a buoyancy-Fourier number.

Author(s):  
Reza Baghaei Lakeh ◽  
H. Pirouz Kavehpour ◽  
Richard E. Wirz ◽  
Adrienne S. Lavine

In this study, turbulent natural convection heat transfer during the charge cycle of a Thermal Energy Storage system was studied computationally and analytically. The storage fluids were supercritical CO2 and liquid toluene which are stored in vertical and sealed storage tubes. A computational model was developed and validated to study turbulent natural convection during the charge cycle. The results of this study show that the aspect ratio of the storage tube (L/D) has an important effect on the heat transfer characteristics. A conceptual model was developed that views the thermal storage process as a hot boundary layer that rises along the tube wall and falls in the center to replace the cold fluid in the core. This model shows that dimensionless mean temperature of the storage fluid and average Nusselt number are functions of a Buoyancy-Fourier number.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Baghaei Lakeh ◽  
H. Pirouz Kavehpour ◽  
Richard E. Wirz ◽  
Adrienne S. Lavine

In this study, turbulent natural convection heat transfer during the charge cycle of a Thermal Energy Storage system was studied computationally and analytically. The storage fluids were supercritical CO2 and liquid toluene which are stored in vertical and sealed storage tubes. A computational model was developed and validated to study turbulent natural convection during the charge cycle. The results of this study show that the aspect ratio of the storage tube (L/D) has an important effect on the heat transfer characteristics. A conceptual model was developed that views the thermal storage process as a hot boundary layer that rises along the tube wall and falls in the center to replace the cold fluid in the core. This model shows that dimensionless mean temperature of the storage fluid and average Nusselt number are functions of a Buoyancy-Fourier number.


Author(s):  
Reza Baghaei Lakeh ◽  
Adrienne S. Lavine ◽  
H. Pirouz Kavehpour ◽  
Gani B. Ganapathi ◽  
Richard E. Wirz

Heat transfer to the storage fluid is a critical subject in thermal energy storage systems. The storage fluids that are proposed for supercritical thermal storage system are organic fluids that have poor thermal conductivity; therefore, pure conduction will not be an efficient heat transfer mechanism for the system. The current study concerns a supercritical thermal energy storage system consisting of horizontal tubes filled with a supercritical fluid. The results of this study show that the heat transfer to the supercritical fluid is highly dominated by natural convection. The buoyancy-driven flow inside the storage tubes dominates the flow field and enhances the heat transfer dramatically. Depending on the diameter of the storage tube, the buoyancy-driven flow may be laminar or turbulent. The natural convection has a significant effect on reducing the charge time compared to pure conduction. It was concluded that although the thermal conductivity of the organic supercritical fluids are relatively low, the effective laminar or turbulent natural convection compensates for this deficiency and enables the supercritical thermal storage to charge effectively.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1390
Author(s):  
Rocío Bayón

Thermal energy storage using phase change materials (PCMs) is a research topic that has attracted much attention in recent decades [...]


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iñigo Ortega-Fernández ◽  
Javier Rodríguez-Aseguinolaza ◽  
Antoni Gil ◽  
Abdessamad Faik ◽  
Bruno D’Aguanno

Slag is one of the main waste materials of the iron and steel manufacturing. Every year about 20 × 106 tons of slag are generated in the U.S. and 43.5 × 106 tons in Europe. The valorization of this by-product as heat storage material in thermal energy storage (TES) systems has numerous advantages which include the possibility to extend the working temperature range up to 1000 °C, the reduction of the system cost, and at the same time, the decrease of the quantity of waste in the iron and steel industry. In this paper, two different electric arc furnace (EAF) slags from two companies located in the Basque Country (Spain) are studied. Their thermal stability and compatibility in direct contact with the most common heat transfer fluids (HTFs) used in the concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are analyzed. The experiments have been designed in order to cover a wide range of temperature up to the maximum operation temperature of 1000 °C corresponding to the future generation of CSP plants. In particular, three different fluids have been studied: synthetic oil (Syltherm 800®) at 400 °C, molten salt (Solar Salt) at 500 °C, and air at 1000 °C. In addition, a complete characterization of the studied slags and fluids used in the experiments is presented showing the behavior of these materials after 500 hr laboratory-tests.


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mounir Ibrahim ◽  
Pavel Sokolov ◽  
Thomas Kerslake ◽  
Carol Tolbert

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]


Solar Energy ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregor P. Henze

This paper describes simulation-based results of a large-scale investigation of a commercial cooling plant including a thermal energy storage system. A cooling plant with an ice-on-coil system with external melt and a reciprocating compressor operating in a large office building was analyzed under four different control strategies. Optimal control as the strategy that minimizes the total operating cost (demand and energy charges) served as a benchmark to assess the performance of the three conventional controls. However, all control strategies depend on properly selected design parameters. The storage and chiller capacities as the primary design parameters were varied over a wide range and the dependence of the system’s cost saving performance on these parameters was evaluated.


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