Numerical and parametric study of the thermal performance of a latent storage unit

Abstract

Latent heat storage is an advanced technology with advantages for heating and cooling systems, including load displacement, flexibility, and energy savings. By accumulating thermal energy efficiently during low-demand periods and using it during high-demand periods. This reduces environmental impact, and financial savings, and increases system reliability. This work aims to study numerically a latent heat storage system. This system consists of a tank filled with a phase-change material (PCM); the tank is crossed by a heat transfer fluid to charge the PCM with thermal energy. this process follows the evolution of the PCM temperature and the tank outlet temperature during the charging period. A thorough parametric study analyzes the thermal and dynamic performance of the system and studies the effect of several parameters, including tank height, HTF mass flow rate, PCM layer thickness, and the amount of energy stored during charge. The system was modeled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate PCM phase change phenomena. Validation of the numerical model showed excellent agreement with experimental results. It was observed that a higher mass flow rate leads to a shorter storage time and lower stored energy, with values of 19.2563 kWh for a flow rate of 0.6 kg/s and 20.1642 kWh for a flow rate of 0.4 kg/s.