Abstract
The thermal performance of macro-encapsulated latent heat storage elements in form of thin, rectangular plates within an air-driven heat storage system is investigated. The plates are made of high-density polyethylene and filled with phase change material. Several plates are stacked together and inserted into a box which can be installed in a heating / air conditioning system. First, an experimental test rig was designed. Measured temperature and pressure drop data retrieved from the rig was then used to validate a simplified computational fluid dynamics model describing a section of the test set-up including a stack of ten plates. Afterwards, the model was further reduced in complexity in order to perform a parametric study by varying geometric parameters of the storage plates. In total, 217 different geometries were simulated and their thermo-hydraulic efficiency was evaluated. As a result, geometries were proposed, which can potentially increase the thermo-hydraulic efficiency of the storage plates by over 50%.
Highlights
As reported by the International Energy Agency, only 10% of the global heat production was covered by renewable energy sources in 2018 (International Energy Agency, 2019)
The slopes are different, and the optimal compromise between heat transfer and pressure drop can only be found by analyzing the thermo-hydraulic efficiency (Eq 6)
We found that the frustum based geometries have an improvement potential of only 14% compared to the original
Summary
As reported by the International Energy Agency, only 10% of the global heat production was covered by renewable energy sources in 2018 (International Energy Agency, 2019). One of the ways toward increasing the usability of renewable energies is to adapt the supply of heating and cooling to the current demand and to minimize the cost-intensive consumption of electricity and fossil fuels. Among others, this can be achieved by using heat and cold storages, which increasingly have become a major focus of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) sector. The system is charged during the day, when the thermal solar collector heats up an air flow, which is guided through the storage causing the PCM to melt. If properly designed, such a system is able to keep a constant indoor temperature
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