Abstract
This paper presents a technical description and characteristics of heat accumulation system operation in one of the Polish combined heat and power (CHP) plants. The total thermal capacity of the nonpressure hot water accumulator is 75 MWh. An important issue in the case of hot water tanks is thermal stratification caused by the difference in density between higher-temperature water, located in the top of the hot water storage tank and colder water in its bottom. The article presents the results of numerical analysis based on axial-symmetric model of hot water tank using Ansys Fluent software. Simulations with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method were carried out for the process of charging the heat accumulator lasting 10 hours. The results were compared with the measurement data from the CHP plant.
Highlights
In recent years, interest in using hot water tanks as energy storage has increased significantly
Research carried out all over the world mainly concerns issues related to storage and management of energy in the form of heat for the needs of single-family, multi-family buildings and large hot water tanks used in power plants, heating plants and combined heat and power plants
The comparison was carried out based on an analysis of the average temperature of the tank water (Fig. 15), the density of the heat flux that is released to the environment through the cylindrical part of the accumulator (Fig. 16) and the thickness of the transition layer separating hot water from cold water (Fig. 17)
Summary
Interest in using hot water tanks as energy storage has increased significantly. This is mainly due to the changes taking place on the electricity market and in particular the increase in production from renewable energy sources (RES). You can find many works on stratification studies These works mostly concern the influence of geometrical parameters such as the shape and location of the inlet nozzle, the shape of the tank, and the use of additional plates improving the separation, at the height of the transition zone. The paper [1] presents the results of studies on the influence of the inlet nozzle shape on the thermal stratification. The article [3] presents the results of numerical tests of the new design of the tank inlet. The correctness of the applied calculation method has been confirmed by the good consistency of the results with the measurement data from the real object
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