Abstract
In this paper, we have applied topology optimization (TO) to the latent heat based thermal energy storage (LHTES) device design. The high conductivity materials (HCM) are added to the phase change materials (PCM) to increase the overall thermal conductivity. Distribution of HCM in PCM is optimized by the TO method to maximize the charging speed of the LHTES device at the different charging periods. The time-dependent Navier–Stokes (NS) equations, involving natural convection and PCM phase change, are chosen as the governing equations of fluid motion. The energy equation including latent heat is strongly coupled with the NS equation. The adjoint method is utilized to derive and calculate the sensitivity. Several 2D numerical examples with different charging periods and different HCM volume fractions have been studied with this TO method. The charging period showed a huge influence on the optimized TO structures. The short charging period designs exhibit more conductive structures while the long charging period designs show convective structures. A pareto front of the topologically optimized designs has been constructed, which shows up to 110.7% of improvement in the charging speed over the parallel-fin design with the same root fin width.
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