A Numerical Study of Heat Performance of Multi-PCM Brick in a Heat Storage Building

Abstract

Modern technologies of thermal power engineering make it possible to design and build systems using renewable energy sources. Often, energy accumulation and storage require the development and adaptation of appropriate systems, the simplest of which are passive systems based on phase-change materials. In this study, a numerical analysis of heat transfer in a brick wall containing several materials with different melting temperatures is carried out. The unsteady two-dimensional conjugate problem of phase transitions is considered, taking into account natural convection in the melt, which has been solved using the developed in-house finite difference technique. A numerical experiment has been carried out for a brick block with several rectangular inserts filled with PCMs under various external thermal conditions. As a result of the numerical analysis, it has been shown that the relative arrangement of materials with different melting points has a significant impact on the heat transfer and heat exchange between the environment and the room.