Numerical Simulation of Packed Bed Cubical Storage Unit Filled with Spherical Capsules of PCM

Abstract

Modern life and increasing demand on the energy make the saving of available energy in the packed bed of PCM capsules very important to use in the other time. A numerical investigation is proposed for storage of thermal energy using packed bed of spherical capsules filled with phase change material PCM. The spherical capsules are arranged as layers in the cubic vessel that exposed to heat transfer fluid. The fourth order Runge-Kutta method is applied to solve the energy balance equation of heat transfer fluid and the energy conservation equation of spherical capsules of PCM is solved using finite differences method with heat capacity method for phase change of PCM. The effect of Reynolds number and diameter of capsulated sphere are studied. The results illustrate that at constant porosity of packed bed the small diameter of capsulated spheres gives shorter time for melting, where at D=50mm & t=196.5sec the melting fraction of PCM is 0.09, while at D=10mm & t=196.5sec the melting fraction of PCM is 1.00. The results of present study have been compared with other previous results and give a good agreement.