Numerical investigation of phase change material integration in structured thermocline systems for concentrated solar power

Abstract

The integration of encapsulated PCM in a structured thermal energy storage system is studied. The fluid and filler material are discretized using a one-dimensional approach, while the PCM is discretized two-dimensionally. The accumulated energy for the height percentage of PCM and cutoff temperature differences are obtained for three PCMs, NaNO3, KOH and H380, to obtain the best options to enhance the accumulated energy using encapsulated PCM.