Abstract
The use of latent heat thermal energy storage is an effective way to increase the efficiency of energy systems due to its high energy density compared with sensible heat storage systems. The design of the storage material encapsulation is one of the key parameters that critically affect the heat transfer in charging/discharging of the storage system. To fill the gap found in the literature, this paper experimentally investigates the effect of the macro-encapsulation design on the performance of a lab-scale thermal energy storage tank. Two rectangular slabs with the same length and width but different thickness (35 mm and 17 mm) filled with commercial phase change material were used. The results show that using thinner slabs achieved a higher power, leading to a reduction in the charging and discharging time of 14% and 30%, respectively, compared with the thicker slabs. Moreover, the variation of the heat transfer fluid flow rate has a deeper impact on the temperature distribution and the energy charged/released when thicker slabs were used. The macro-encapsulation design did not have a significant impact on the discharging efficiency of the tank, which was around 85% for the operating thresholds considered in this study.
Highlights
IntroductionFor example, represent one of the most common applications of the integration of LTHES as an active or passive system [2,3,4]
The results showed that the energy storage capacity of the tank filled with phase change materials (PCM) was increased by 35.5% compared with the same tank filled with water
Water was used as the heat transfer fluid (HTF)
Summary
For example, represent one of the most common applications of the integration of LTHES as an active or passive system [2,3,4]. TES can be used in HVAC components or systems to balance the supply of domestic hot water and heating/cooling demand when renewables are used [5,6], or to reduce the energy consumption through peak load shifting [7], or free cooling techniques [8]. Passive systems are directly integrated into the building envelope to reduce the energy demand [9,10]. Other common applications where LTHES can be integrated include solar thermal power plants, such as concentrated solar power (CSP) [11], solar cooling applications [12], district heating or cooling [13], waste heat recovery [14], solar process heat [15], or cryogenic applications [16]
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