Bir yatay gizli ısıl enerji depolama biriminde eksantriklik: iç boru geometrisinin etkileri

Abstract

The intermitancy of solar energy has resulted in a urge to implement a buffer for providing constant and reliable energy in different sectors. Latent thermal energy storage solutions that use phase change materials have been the main focus of researchers due to their size, cost and near-constant operating temperatures. One of the main ways of performance improvement in concentric LTES units is changing the location of inner tube to introduce eccentricity and decrease the response and charging time of the unit. In this study, the eccentricity is implemented for different inner tube geometries; circle, square and triangle. The time-dependent melting behavior of all the cases are presented by investigating the velocity, temperature and liquid fraction contours. The melting time is improved for all the cases with the triangle eccentric design having the lowest melting time. The charge time in the triangular case is decreased nearly 50% while the decrease is less significant for the circle and square designs. The natural convection improvement due to employment of eccentricity is the reason for the enhancements.