Abstract
The paper presents an innovative method for smoothing fluctuations of heat flux, using the thermal energy storage unit (TES Unit) with phase change material and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) control. The research was carried out on a pilot large-scale installation, of which the main component was the TES Unit with a heat capacity of 500 MJ. The main challenge was to smooth the heat flux fluctuations, resulting from variable heat source operation. For this purpose, a molten salt phase change material was used, for which melting occurs at nearly constant temperature. To enhance the smoothing effect, a classical control system based on PID controllers was supported by ANN. The TES Unit was supplied with steam at a constant temperature and variable mass flow rate, while a discharging side was cooled with water at constant mass flow rate. It was indicated that the operation of the TES Unit in the phase change temperature range allows to smooth the heat flux fluctuations by 56%. The tests have also shown that the application of artificial neural networks increases the smoothing effect by 84%.
Highlights
Thermal energy storage (TES) technologies are being widely developed on the global scale
This paper presents an innovative method for smoothing heat flux fluctuations using the Phase change materials (PCMs) thermal energy storage unit controlled by Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)
The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of the application of PCM and ANN on discharging heat flux fluctuations
Summary
Thermal energy storage (TES) technologies are being widely developed on the global scale. The demand for heat storage arises in two cases: the instability of the operation of the heat source and the variability of heat consumption. The instability of the operation on both the heat generation and heat consumption causes variation in the flow rate and/or temperature, which results in variations in the heat flux. Irregularity of heat source operation may be caused by several factors, e.g., the nonstationary nature of heat generation. Other factors affecting the irregularity of the heat source operation include external conditions such as insolation, wind force and external temperature. These external factors apply to all renewable energy sources, which are dependent on the sunlight intensity, wind force, external temperature, etc. The variability of heat consumption is a result of variable heat demand at different periods of time, usually occurring in a daily or annual cycle
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